VICTORY LOAN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 192, 28 May 1945, Page 4

VICTORY LOAN

APPEAL BY MINISTER. VALUE OF INVESTMENT, QUESTION OF CONSUMER GOODS (Special to Ihe “Guardian.”) WELLINGTON. This Day, “Inflation, which is the alternative to stabilisation would, beyond all doubt. Avreck our prospect of happy and successful beginnings to our servicemen’s peace-time rehabilitation,” declared the Hon. D. G. Sullivan (Minister of Supply and munitions) in a Victory Loan address last night. Mr Sullivan is Minister in charge of Stabilisation, and most of his address stressed the value of war loan investment in maintaining the purchasing power of the country’s currency. In some respects, he said, the successful stabilisation of our economic life now was flie key to our welfare for many years to come, particularly in the years immediately following final victory.

“Thosd of you Avho remember what happened in the early ’twenties after the last Avar,” continued the Minister, “will appreciate Avhat I say AA r hen I recall the soaring, prices and depreciating Avages and ultimately depression and bankruptcy. In Wellington, _on Armistice Day in 1918, bread was sad the 21b loaf, and butter was Is 8d per lb; hut with the end of the Avar those prices started rising rapidly and they kept going up for three years until in 1.921 bread Avas 7d for the standard loaf and butter was 2s 4d per lb. Sugar was even worse. By 1921 the price of sugar Avas double Avhat it Avas on Armistice Day, and it was the same Avith other things. So you see that last time prices Avent on rising long after the war ended, and some prices, the ones for which Avartime controls were suddenly relaxed, rose more after the Avar than they did during the Avar. Point for Farmers. “There is a point for farmers in this, too. Prices for most farm products kept on going up after the Avar till 1921. Then came the break. The butter-fat pay-out in 1921 was .33d per Da. hut the next year's pay-out was only half that much, and then came the long, dismal slide of prices that went down to the depths of the depression of the Thirties, and it Avas a somewhat similar story Avith Avheat and avool. The immediate post-Avar in’flation of 1918-21 Avas no good for the farmer, just as the rise in retail prices was no good for the ordinary consumer—the housewife. “The time has now come for stabilisation to help us to prevent that kind of trouble, hut how much it Avill help depends on all of us actively supporting stabilisation, and one way of doing that is to invest in this Victory Loan. By doing that,” concluded Mr Sullivan, “you will he helping to pay for victory and helping to make victory worth while.”

As Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan had something to say regarding the future prospects for consumer goods. “The trouble is,” he said, “that V-E Day did not automatically fill the shops with all the goods we are short of. We have to wait until enough civilian goods are being made again in the world’s factories, and while we are fighting Japan we shall have to wait till shipping can be spared from military jobs in the Pacific. So the simple fact is that the inflationary danger, the tendency for prices to rise out of the people’s reach, is still with us. The Victory Loan calls merely for the postponement of the enjoyment of some of your surplus purchasing power—only a temporary selfdenial, and surely a small thanksoffering for the victories we have secured.” DOMINION’S RESPONSE. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 27. The Reserve Bank announced on Saturday evening that the total of the 1945 Victory Loan was £14,087,631. Cash subscriptions during the day amounted to £148,248, including £1413 of redeemed promises. Amounts raised and percentages of objectives in the 20 war loan districts are now: Wellington £2,515,186, 68 per cent; Auckland £3,559,113, 61; Southland £766,826, 60; Taranaki £531,94,7, 57; Wairarapa £220,625, 57; South Canterbury £329,161, 55; North Otago £131,918, 55; Otago £1,225,695, 54; Wanganui £421,607, 54; Hawke’s Bay £499,431, 52; Gisborne - East Coast. £226,-160, 52; Northland £232,283 51; Marlborough £127,659, 50; Waikato - King Country £666,901, 49; Thames-Bay of Plenty £271,907, 49; Nelson £250,176. 48; Manawatu £524,388, 48 ; Westland £161,780, 48; Canterbury £1,376,330, 46; Buller £48,232, 46. SATURDAY WORST DAY YET. Investments in the Victory Loan at Ashburton on Saturday were the poorest since the opening of the campaign, totalling only £753 7s. This brings the total in hand to £119,032 Is 3d.