LIBERTY LOAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1943, Page 2

LIBERTY LOAN

GREATEST FINANCIAL UNDERTAKING IN HISTORY OF DOMINION. ADDRESSES BY THE MAYOR OF MASTERTON.

The greatest financial undertaking in the history of the Dominion, the raising of the Third Liberty Loan of £35,000,000 before July 10, was brought before the notice of the public on Saturday night by the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, who spoke to theatre audiences in Mastei’ton. Mr Jordan announced that Mr P. J. Borthwick had led the local appeal with an investment of £25,000. The amount spent on the war last year, said Mr Jordan, was £141,000,000, of which £24,000,000 came from the United States The net amount found by the Dominion represented an expenditure of about £’6 per family per week. This year the amount to be spent was £148,000,000, of which £68,000,000 was to be spent on the army, £34,000,000 on the Air Force, and £lO,000,000 on New Zealand’s navy. Of this sum of £148,000,000, £46,000,000 was being found by direct taxation, Great Britain was finding £12,000,000, the United States of America, under lend-lease arrangements, £40,000,000, of which about half was to be spent on planes and equipment, while the balance of £50,000,000 was to be raised by loans. Mr Jordan asked his audiences what chances there were of raising this money. If only a fraction of the deposits in the Post Office Savings Bank and the trading banks were made available, the Success of the loan was assured. All that was necessary was the will to do it. Mr Jordan drew attention to the danger that existed at the present time, where large supplies of money were available for spending and there were very restricted supplies of civil goods to be bought. This meant that the money of the public had a very greatly decreased purchasing power. Therein was the danger of inflation. To eliminate this danger and at the .same time to safeguard their own wellbeing and the country, Mr Jordan urged them to invest their moneys in the loan. Mi’ Jordan enumerated the various forms of investment open to the public and drew attention to the small number of subscribers to the last loan —35,000. Canada, he said, had recently completed a loan of £110,000,000 for which there were 2,500,000 subscribers —one-fifth of the population. To equal that Nev/ Zealand would need to have 300,000 subscribers. They would be satisfied to get 150,000. Investment in the loan was considered a trustee investment and if trustees were not able to tie up money for a longer period than two years, he said, the National Savings account offered an appropriate investment, with funds maturing on June 30, 1945, or if invested after June 30 this year, on June 30, 1946. Mr Jordan urged them to forget all about politics and the 15 per cent wool payment and to think of “Tiny” Freyberg and his magnificent New Zealand division, as it was them the public had been called upon to help. They had set an example. “They have never faltered, never failed in their purpose,” said Mr Jordan “Let us see to it.”