BIG TASK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1943, Page 3

BIG TASK

FINANCING THE WAR

EVERYONE MUST HELP.

HUGE CONTINUING OUTLAY.

The magnitude of the task placed upon the people of New Zealand in raising the Third Liberty Loan of £35,000,000 and the fact that everyone must subscribe to ensure the success of the loan were points emphasised by Mr C. O. Coad, of Wellington, in an address to the Masterton Rotary Club today.

Mr Coad congratulated Masterton people on their splendid record in national war savings. He said that with 3134 householders and 365 business firms, Masterton had 3353 war savings accounts, including 76 groups of 1276 group depositors. Masterton's war savings weekly quota was £627 and the annual quota £32,604. Out of 86 weeks, Masterton had raised the flag of success on 64 occasions. National War Savings were an essential part of the war effort.

It was necessary for everyone to get behind the Liberty Loan, said Mr Coad, who pointed out that the war was costing New Zealand more than £250 a minute —more than £2,500,000 a week. For the current financial year £148,000,000 was required for war expenditure. That was about £75 for every man, woman and.child in the Dominion, There were about 50,000 business firms in New Zealand, ff each, subscribed on an average £lOO the total would be only £5,000,000 and if the 400,000 householders in New Zealand each subscribed, on an average, £lO the total would be only £4,000,000. From that the magnitude of the task in raising £35.000,000 could be seen. ACCUMULATED SAVINGS. After referring to the organisation set up to sponsor the Liberty Loan appeal, Mr Coad said 200,000 subscribers of £lO and over were wanted. They wanted the man on £3OO, £4OO, £5OO and £7OO a year to subscribe, not io buy a £1 bond but to invest £5O, £lOO or £2OO. Some portion of the accumulated savings in the banks and savings banks could be voluntarily transferred to the war loan with advantage to all concerned. By the mere transfer of money from the Post Office Savings Bank people could do .their duty right nobly by the Third Liberty Loan. For the last Liberty Loan, the Wellington postal district raised £4, 800,000. This time the Wellington district target was about £5,000,000. Masterton’s target was £260,832. On the basis of 250,000 subscribers for the Dominion, Masterton required 2000 investors of £lO or more. It required £B3 on the average from each household. As in all wars, there was a tendency for the purchasing power in the hands of the people to outrun the available civilian goods to be bought for consumption, and to cause an unbalanced position. Inflation had to be guarded against at all costs. The spendable money in New Zealand before the war was £54,000,000 per year. Today it was £120,000,000. If the Reserve Bank increased its note issue it would simply increase still further the spending power of the people, without producing any more goods or any more service for them to purchase and the rush to inflation would soon begin. As so much of their income today was coming out of war production and war activities and none of it was flowing back naturally into war production and war activities, a proportion of that money must be put back into war pro- j duction by some special method. That - special method was the Third Liberty Loan.

(Continued from page 5.)