Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY. JUNE 24, 1943 NELSON’S LOAN FRONT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 24 June 1943, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY. JUNE 24, 1943 NELSON’S LOAN FRONT

IF Nelson district is to reach its target of £550,000 by the time the third Liberty Loan closes on 10th July there must be an intensification rather than a let-up in the rate of contribution. Of the latest total of just over £241,000 the city has subscribed approximately £IBI,OOO and the country rather more than £60,000. Their respective targets are £314,000 and £216,000. The challenge there- ; fore remains a formidable one. By this time there can be few people in the Nelson area who have not heard of the loan, but a good number still have not given it that personal consideration which is demanded of us all. Response from the willing has been excellent, yet one of the main ideas this time is to tap sources from which loan money has not previously come. Many of the business firms and other institutions have already subscribed heavily; the gap remaining to be bridged will be mainly the responsibility of the private investor, the person with a modest bank balance, with a Post Office Savings account with cash under the clock, or of the individual who has to borrow in order to lend. New Zealand is a small man’s country and the small man must do his part to help find the money to fight the war. Some are sitting back waiting for the other fellow when they should be coming forward to lend of their own initiative. Our Division in the desert could not have won their objectives in this way and neither can we who are called to hold the financial front.

A good slice of Nelson’s total so far has come through prudent investors realising that, if they transfer money from their Post Office Savings account to National Savings, they will be subscribing to the loan and also getting, half a per cent more interest. The opportunity to do this with a currency of two years on the investment ceases at the end of June; thus those who intend to use this means of subscribing should lose no time in doing so. Trading banks will give reasonable accommodation to their customers who wish to invest while many employers have devised schemes whereby advances are made to employees against wages and salaries. There is no escape from the stern fact that the £35,000,000 required to meet part of our war bill must come from the savings of the people. Those who advocate any considerable use of public credit are misleading us into believing that there is some easy method of financing the war. Neither in fighting it nor in paying for it is there any such pleasant road opening out for us to travel. But the act of lending now—even at considerable I sacrifice—is going to benefit the in- | vestor financially, because he is stor-

ing up purchasing power to be used in happier days in a much better buyers’ market. More than that, by refraining from spending now and lending the money, he is helping to protect the value % of every one of his own pounds. An excess of surplus money could well become unmanageable and defeat the best efforts to control it. On grounds of hardheaded self-interest, as well as from patriotic motives, the case for every New Zealander investing the largest possible share of his resources in the Third Liberty Loan is conclusive.