ABOUT £2,000

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 June 1943, Page 2

ABOUT £2,000

RESPONSE TO BOND WAGON VISIT LIBERTY LOAN INVESTMENTS. MASTERTON TOTAL £82,120. About £2,000 was subscribed to the Liberty Loan yesterday as the result of the visit to Masterton of the Bond Wagon, which entertained the public outside the Post Office in the afternoon. The wagon was met at the Central School by the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, and headed by the American Marine Band, proceeded along Queen Street to the Post Office, where a crowd of considerable proportions assembled.

Mr Jordan introduced the men of the American Marine Band, and thanked them for their presence and playing. He then introduced another band of quite a different character, stating that he had just returned from meeting the personnel of the band wagon, and had inspected their passports. He had found them fit and proper persons to seek the hiding places of the citizens’ money. The raising of the Third Liberty Loan was the greatest financial undertaking New Zealand had ever faced. New Zealand could do it, if only they had the will to do it, and he believed they had. GOOD START IN CARTERTON. Stating that the party had secured £5OO in Carterton that morning, Mr Dudley Wrathall, manager of the wagon, said that had been a good start to the party’s tour. .They had a great job of work to do, and the tour, which will occupy three weeks, would take them up the East Coast to Dargaville and back down the West Coast to Wellington. Mr Wrathall introduced the various members of the party, Geof. Farrell, piano-acordian player; Ray Trewern, tenor; Stewart Harvey, baritone; Mr K. C. Brown, who had come to New Zealand from Australia to assist the loan; and Reg. Morgan, pianist. Items were given by .the artists named, and by Misses Tauwhare and Nini, two local girls, who sang in W.W.S A. uniforms, and by the Marine Band. GOING BEYOND THE QUOTA.

Stating that he had for three years been assisting the Australian Government to raise war loans, Mr Brown said he came to New Zealand to help with the raising of the Liberty Loan. It was not a question of subscribing a quota, it was one of how much beyond any quota could be subscribed. The Government had made it very easy for every wage-earner to at least take out £1 or £lO bonds. The terms of payment were exceptionally easy. The Government had made it so simple, he said, that he hardly believed there was any person in Masterton, Carterton, or in any part of New Zealand, who could conscientiously say he could not afford it. What was the sacrifice of those who stayed at home in comfort compared with the men in the fighting forces overseas, doing a 24 hours a day job and keeping their chins up? A great many of them had made the supreme sacrifice, and much of the money to be raised by the loan was to supply the fighting forces with the necessary equipment and armour. The New Zealand fighting forces had no superior in; the world provided they had the armour. (Applause.) The people were not called upon to give their money, but to lend it to the Government for a purpose, and at a fair rate of interest, so that the fighting forces would have the equipment they needed. In expressing the thanks of the community to the Marine Band and to the stranger band, Mr Jordan said there was no sounder investment than by subscribing to the Liberty Loan. He asked the public not to think of any Government, but to think of themselves and their own safety, and last, but not least, of “Tiny” Freyberg and his men. He wished the band wagon team happy hunting throughout the North Island.

CONTINUED EFFORT LOAN EVERYONE’S CONCERN. MR T. P. HANNA MEETS LOCAL COMMITTEE. I — Mr T. P. Hanna, of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Wellington, visited Masterton yesterday to confer with the local Liberty Loan Committee. In congratulating the town and district on their achievements during the first week of the loan campaign, Mr Hanna stressed the need for continued effort right up to the closing day of the loan. He also emphasised that the loan was everybody’s loan and every subscriber possible was needed whether the individual could subscribe £lO or £lO,OOO. This war, he said, was being fought to preserve their liberty and their democratic form of government. Liberty was the greatest of their possessions and the loss of it would render every other possession valueless. By subscribing their savings to the Liberty Loan they could ensure the retention of liberty not only for themselves but also for their children. The question was not “can I subscribe?” but “have 1 the right not to subscribe?” It was commonly understood, Mr Hanna said, that in the Air Force it took about 30 men on the ground to keep one man in the air, but it took all the people at home with their savings, lent to the Government, to keep all their forces fighting, whether on the sea, in the air or in Tunisia or in Europe. They could not let them down.

YESTERDAY’S INVESTMENTS £7,100 FROM 33 SUBSCRIBERS. Yesterday’s Liberty Loan investments in Masterton amounted to £7,100, from 33 subscribers, making the total to date £82.120. In addition, Liberty bonds totalling £643 and war savings investments amounting to £l,174 were taken out and £7 worth of War Savings stamps sold. ‘ NOTABLE LEAD

GIVEN BY THE BLENHEIM ROTARY CLUB.

(By Teleeranh—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day.

The Blenheim Rotarv Club has decided to invest its surplus funds in the Third Liberty Loan, and every Blenheim Rotarian has undertaken to become a personal subscriber in addition. This news, suggests the National War Loan Committee, will be a challenge to

the other Rotary Clubs in New Zealand —Pearly forty of them—to play their corporate and personal part in this important war effort. The Rotary organisation is well known for public-spirit-ed actions, always havihg a practical objective, and the Blenheim example probably will encourage many other organisations to follow the same patriotic course.