"BLACK FRIDAY"

Evening Star, Issue 25494, 26 May 1945, Page 6

"BLACK FRIDAY"

OTAGO'S INVESTMENTS ONLY £13,611

With Victory Loan receipts of only £13,611 in Otago yesterday, the poorest day since the campaign began, the provincial total finished . at £1,220,864, or 54 per cent, of the quota. Yesterday's returns from the sale of bonds and stock and additional credits to national savings accounts were among the lowest recorded in any loan flotation undertaken during this war, and members of the. Otago War Loan Committee, gloomily surveying the receipts, unanimously termed the day " Black Friday." t Had it not been for the efforts of the commercial travellers and postwomen yesterday, the figure would have been appreciably lower. A tribute to the work of these collectors was paid this morning by Mr J. G. Dykes, chairman of the district War Loan Committee. Otago receipts during the past week, the second in the campaign, amouuted to £250,000; or £750,000 below the objective set by tho committee, which hoped to obtain the second £1,000,000, and thus obviate the additional work and expense entailed in au_ extended campaijj!. To "meet the provincial allocation of Otago must average a, collection of £259,784 weekly, or approximately £43,300 daily until June 16.