LOAN OVER-SUBSCRIBED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24633, 12 July 1943, Page 2

LOAN OVER-SUBSCRIBED

By Hii<l ina, Die £35, 000,000 asked for in I lie Third Liberty L(i;in, with .-it least L'l,(is!.(i(io in ficldilion, she N'ew Zealand homo front has responded magnificent ly to (ho call fin it-- savings and ils palriotism. The issue was by far the largest single operation of the kind in the history of the country. Public borrowing on the open market last year yielded £27.000,000, but this sum was raised in two loans, one of £15,000,000 which was over-subscribed sufficiently to limit the second appeal to £10.000,000. The most impressive feature of this latest result, however, is not the huge sum found, but the number of contributors. The total was 419,7(53, which makes the average investment per head a little over £93. The Minister of Finance has given figures allowing the analysis to be carried a little further. Purchasers of bonds, 182,193 in all, provided £2.003.420, or a little more than £ll each. National Savings accounts, 175,000 in number, yielded £7.381,202, just over £-12 each. Inscribed stock attracted 02.570 investors who contributed £29,009,755, or

an average of approximately £473. The third analysis is the most interesting. The investments of large companies and powerful institutions naturally went into inscribed stock, a factor weighting the average so much that the outcome is all the more impressive. There must have been large numbers of subscribers, each with a modest £SO or £IOO, for such a result as an average of £193 to have been possible. The all-over contribution of £93 a head is in marked contrast with the figures for the Victory Loan issued in 1941. On that occasion 10,902 subscribers provided £ 10,220.(i20, an average of about £930 each. In the number of contributors, the Third Liberty Loan has done ten times as well. This is profoundly satisfactory trom the financial viewpoint. It is also a heartening demonstration of the public's faith in the country and determination to support the war effort with all it: has.