AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Your article in Wednesday's issue concerning the confiscation by the Government of the scrip of Australian shares discloses how very unfairly the holders of such shares may be treated. Some four years ago I bought a parcel of shares in a highlysuccessful company with capital running into millions. The price was £3 2s per share, but I must admit that the return in dividends was completely satisfactory. Today, because of war conditions, and the action of the New Zealand Government, the company's name has disappeared from the New Zealand share register and the shares are unsaleable in New Zealand. Is the Government to take over the shares at today's value —possibly. 35s to 40s— and establish a credit in Australia which will most certainly become considerably increased by the rise in the value of the shares when the war ends in Britain's favour? Hundreds of persons like myself will lose their main source of income. So the unfortunates who had made provision for old age without calling on the Government to help them are going to be left with scarcely a feather to fly with. —I am, etc., ' STRANDED.