READY MONEY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 121, 24 May 1945, Page 8

READY MONEY

BiG SURPLUS FOR LENDING

Ready money—the notes and coin in circulation, credit balances in trading banks, and deposits in the savings banks—has increased by £90,000,000 during the war period. Current incomes have expanded remarkably, though the spending outlet has been restricted. It is not surprising that the people of New Zealand have been able to pay war taxation, subscribe to loans of record amounts, and still enjoy the comforting security of good balances in the bank, states the National War Loan Council. The national income continues to expand. Wage revisions now in progress are estimated, on a conservative basis, to be putting into the pockets of the workers at least £10,000,000 more, and price adjustments at the beginning of the year in connection with the British purchases of our food products will, it is stated by a competent authority, add another £3,000,000 a year to the incomes of dairy farmers and meat producers. They have worked hard for it, because labour on the land has not been adequate. Nor can all this income be spent, therefore the district war loan committees hope to get very generous loan subscriptions from the men on the land. The National War Loan Council has communicated with all the dairy companies of the Dominion asking for their backing in the personal approach which is to be made to their suppliers by the district war loan committees. The 1945 Victory Loan will, it is confidently predicted, make a spurt when this appeal to the farmers is in full swing. The "ready money" test is not the only indication of solid prosperity and ability to finance our country's war effort. Mortgage indebtedness has been declining at a rate never before demonstrated in the official figures of mortgages registered and mortgages discharged. Up till 1941 the tendency every year has been to borrow more money than the total repaid. The tide flowed the other way in 1942, when half a million more cash was paid to redeem mortgages than was advanced as a debt against property. This movement gained impetus in the following year, when mortgages discharged exceeded the total of these registered by over £4.500.000. There is money to spare in New Zealand for the £ 25,000,000 Victory Loan.