A LOCAL WAR LOAN?

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 144, 19 June 1916, Page 6

A LOCAL WAR LOAN?

New Zealand war expenditure as originally estimated by Mr. Allen has been amplified threefold. . Instead of being from £300,000 to £350,000 per month, as he forecasted, it is now amounting to a million a month—a heavy but inevitable burden upon a population of a million. . Much praise has been given to Australia and New Zealand for the combined part they are taking in the Great War.; but they are really fighting-' for their -, own national existence. Th^ fact that'there are 13,000 miles of blue water between them and the North Sea makes no material difference. If Britain goes down they go down. Quite early in the war Australia recognised its financial and other responsibilities. In addition to furnishing substantial contributions in men and material, it has raised, exclusively for war purposes, and in the Commonwealth itself, some £45,000,000. It is now raising a further loan of £50,000,000, and will probably thus raise £100,000,000 in all, inasmuch as the first and second issues were for £5,000,000 and £10,000,000 respectively, and produced £45,000,000. The Finance Minister (Sir Joseph Ward)' does not propose to raise a war loan in New Zealand in the same way as the Commonwealth Government has done. There is no doubt that a £5,000,000 War Loan would be readily taken up by the people of this country. Sir Joseph requires for this year £12,000,000. He proposes the issue of 4j per cent, war bonds instead of a straight-out loan. He does not specify what" amount he estimates to raise by such bonds, but he does believe that " the proposals I am submitting will, in my opinion, supply the means for providing everything that is necessary for the pensions, equipment, transport, and pay of our soldiers." He also hopes not only to supply the necessary means for current requirements, but " eventually" to for the full repayment of the loans received from the Imperial Government for war purposes— a distant hope., we fear. In short, he requires to borrow £12,000,000, and proposes to obtain this partly from the Old Country and partly from New Zealand.

The Post has already suggested that a war loan for, say, £5,000,000 should bo floated in New Zealand on the same terms as the Commonwealth Government offered. It holds that opinion still. Subsequently the Chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, when leaving for Canada last week, expressed a similar view. Will Sir Joseph Ward put the suggestion to the test? 'Will he, instead of issuing -war bonds for an unspecified amount, try the Dominion with a war loan? No doubt he is correct when he says " I don't think it would be prudent to float a loan in New Zealand for public works purposes." But a straight-out war loan is another matter, and it is believed he could thoroughly rely upon the people of the Dominion giving it their patriotic support, especially if it were made easy for small investors to participate. In the second Australian war loan of £10,000,000, for which £21,650,000 was received, £4,000,000 was taken up in denominations ranging from £10 to £500. Sir Joseph should have no anxiety about trying the Dominion with a loan of £5,000,000 at the least.