WAR LOANS AND COMPULSION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16623, 21 August 1917, Page 4

WAR LOANS AND COMPULSION

| The suggestion of compulsion in connection with war loans seems to call for further explanation by the Minister for Finance. It was not made clear in the Budget whether a citizen who fails to subscribe adequately to the loan now before the public may be penalised by an immediate tax, or whether the tax may bo avoided by a fuller subscription to the second portion of the loan to be floated early next yearIn either case it would appear ad-visable-that the Minister should give some guidance as to the basis on which the adequacy of a subscription is to be judged. Citizens are told that they must do their duty in subscriptions to the war loan There can be no doubt that most of them are willing and anxious to do their duty, but there may be con siderable difficulty in deciding what is the measure of that duty. We all know that Sir Joseph Ward is asking for £12,000,000, but it is not easy to say what share of the loan is the individual responsibility of any subscriber. The information upon which such an allocation could be made is in the hands of the Government ; it is not in individual hands. Since the word " compulsion" has been used the Minister ought to state clearly whether the expectations of the Government are based on capital or on income, and in either case the percentage* expected. In the loan now before the public one man may invest the whole of his free capital and consider he has done his full duty; another may get banking assistance and still be doubtful if he is making all the sacrifice the country needs of him. I Sir Joseph Ward has promised an i explanation when he is dealing with the question of taxation. If the success of the loan now being floated is at all dependent upon that explanation it should be made without delay. There is not the least fear of any compulsion being necessary, either now or in the future, if a clear statement is made from which every citizen can approximately translate his own duty into pounds sterling subscribed to the war loan.