"GIVING A LEAD"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 128, 2 June 1942, Page 3

"GIVING A LEAD"

CITY INVESTS £104,500

* Last night the City Council unanimously decided to invest £104,500 standing to credit in various funds in the Liberty Loan, on the motion of the Mayor. . Mr. Hislop said that in the first place it had been thought that approximately £25,000 would have been available for the Libertj Loan, but when further investigation was made it was found that. £104,500 could be made available. Briefly, said the Mayor, the position was that the council had various sums standing on deposit with the banks in various funds, totalling £104,500. There were some deposits maturing and some to mature. Arrangements had been made to take up £104,500 to support the loan. On the other hand these moneys were earning 2£ per cent, and would now earn 3 per cent. He thought it was desirable to announce it at the time he did, because the main effect, apart from the council's money going into it, would be that it would be a lead to other parts of the country to follow, and that might lead to a healthy . form of competition leading to the national benefit. Councillor R- H. Nimmo said that he fully supported the proposal to invest the money in the Liberty Loan, but he thought the Mayor should have consulted the members of his council ■before making a public announcement on such a matter. Councillor L. S. McKenzie suggested that councillors were being made "rubter stamps," and'he objected to that. Councillors R. A. Wright, J. D. Sievwright, W. J. Gaudin, and W. Appleton upheld the Mayor's action, mentioning the good effect the announcement, at that moment, had had upon public opinion, and the lead it had given to other local authorities, one of which had followed that lead by doubling its original contribution. The Mayor's action was unanimously approved.