MAKING THE MILLIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 43, 19 August 1941, Page 6

MAKING THE MILLIONS

When we read of War Weapons Weeks in Britain we may not realise that what is done there with such enthusiasm and success is what New Zealand is now trying to do in the flotation of a £10,000,000 war loan. Perhaps there is an impression here that the millions raised in this or that English town are provided by what we call "money barons." Some of it may be subscribed by the banking, insurance, and investment comjpanies who hold in trust the savings of their millions of customers; but a very great part of the money | comes from people who have smaller means than the average New Zealand citizen has. , It is upon the hundreds of thousands of comparatively small investors that the nation must rely for the bulk of its war finance. That applies to New Zealand as much as to Britain. Indeed it applies more here, for the distribution of capital iwealth is more even. There are fewer rich people to take big blocks of war loan stock, so the people of modest and small means must make up the difference.

The people should do this because it is a necessary—in fact essential —part of the war effort. The soldiers must be armed, paid, fed, clothed, transported, and cared for. All the people who work for this purpose must be paid and the materials must be bought. Those who suggest that payment can be conjured up out of nowhere by printing bright paper money are merely spreading a delusive snare. The payment must come from savings out of earnings. If it does not there will be serious economic trouble in the future. The hundreds of thousands of small investors, who would be hurt in such trouble, must take their share in guarding against it. There is another and very strong reason why they should act —to justify the more equal distribution of capital. It has sometimes been argued that large accumulations of capital in a few hands are necessary to assure finance in emergencies—that small capitalists will not subscribe quickly and readily. Now is the time for the hundred? of thousands to prove that this is wrong, to prove that they have the fullest recognition of the State's war finance responsibilities, and are ready, as individual citizens, to meet them.