A PERSONAL DUTY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 106, 31 October 1942, Page 6

A PERSONAL DUTY

Too much emphasis cannot "be laid on the point made by Captain S. Holm, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, that the success of the second Liberty Loan is a personal responsibility of every citizen of New Zealand. It cannot be left to banks, insurance companies, and big firms. They will do their share, as responsible trustees for their shareholders, policy holders, and depositors. But the individual must play his part, too. This is the more necessary because there have been great changes lately, and particularly in the war years, in the distribution of the national income. A far greater share than formerly of this income now finds its way into the hands and pockets of wage-earners. This redistribution carries with it a great responsibility, and a great danger if the responsibility is not accepted. If the men, and also the women, youths, and girls, whose earnings have risen, regard the extra earnings as just so much extra money for spending, the country will be headed straight for inflation. The pressure of over-abundant money upon a limited supply of goods will prove too great for control by rationing and price-fixing systems. If, on the other hand, the recipients of this income realise that they have a duty to place as much of it as possible at the war service of the State, they will promote national security and also the security of their own living standards. If the stability essential to prosperity is endangered, the hardship will fall first and most upon the workers. Self-preservation, as well as patriotism, demands,. therefore, that they should take the measures that lie in their power to avert this disaster. It cannot be left to someone else.