INTERNAL WAR LOAN

Evening Star, Issue 16086, 11 April 1916, Page 2

INTERNAL WAR LOAN

MORE CONJECTUHE. [Special to the 'Star.'] WELLINGTON, A S ril 11. liie Minister of Finance is hot easily drawn on the subject of a local wa.r loan At present there is no definite indication that ho has changed his previously-ex-pressed opinion that a local loan is" not desirable, but the agitation in favor of a ■'self-reliant policy" grows ir strength. Many people have noted the passage in Mr M'Kenna's Budeet speech in the Imperial Parliament, mentioning gratefully the action of certain 'Dominions in assuming their own financial rcspons : - bility, so relieving the Mother Countrv. The reference, of course, was to Australia, which has raised local war loans with complete success. The Dunedin Patriotic Association urged the Government to borrow locally, and so relievo the Mother Country tho necessity of lending the Dominion money ios war purposes! Apart from tho patriotic phase of the subject there is a consideration of intimate concern to tho banks and the financial concerns of Now Zealand. The banking Teturns: for May last year showed an excess of deposits over advances of £3,088,677. This amount had grown to £540,000 by the end of March, 1916. In other words, the banks have monev in need of investment, and one gathers "that they are experiencing a real difficulty in discovering investments of a suitable k'ind, and would welcome a chance to place a very large sum of money in tho hands of the Government on loan for war purposes. The Minister of Finance has emphasised that the Dominion mnst be prepared to do without British money for «jany years after the war, since Great Britain has very little to spare, and he may feel that it would be in the interests of the Dominion to consider local resources for the future. But the advocates of a war loan are not content with this argument. They ask whv New Zealand should not bear its share of the financial burden of the wa.r now, even if it does increase future difficulties'?