OVER £700,000 IN HAND

Southland Times, Issue 25679, 23 May 1945, Page 4

OVER £700,000 IN HAND

Southland’s Victory Loan Total FEW. BIG INVESTMENTS Southland’s subscription to the 1945 Victory Loan now totals £709,120, or 56 per cent, of the objective of £1,270,000. The amount received yesterday was £10,678, made up of £7OOO from loan stock investments and £3678 from the sale of Victory bonds and national savings investments. Invercargill, with an objective of £852,850, has now raised £490,457. The fact that of Southlands total to date £209,042 has come from national savings and the sale of bonds shows that national savers are'giving good support to the loan. The same cannot be said of the large investors, apart from national institutions. There have been comparatively few loan stock investments in Southland in excess of £2OO. The district organizer, Mr W. G. Nield, therefore, makes a special appeal to the large investors to make their investments as early as possible so that Southland may reach its objective well before the closing date for the loan. Both the trading banks and the Reserve Bank are prepared to extend special facilities to intending investors. Yesterday the necessary authority was received at the chief post office for the transfer of over £lBOO from Post Office Savings Bank accounts to the loan. Other depositors have made the transfers personally, and the amount received in this way is now £2300. Victory bonds to the value of £6O were sold at the special table in the vestibule of the Chief Post Office yesterday, making a total of £4lO in two days. The Salvation Army will hold a special street day on Friday for the sale of Victory bonds, and for a collection for the funds of the Army. All the money collected will be used for the purchase of bonds. Brigadier H. C. Goffin, of Dunedin, will be in charge of the appeal, and he will be assisted by Salvation Army officers and helpers from the city and surrounding districts. The following telegram, referring to The Southland Booster, has been received by Mr Nield from Messrs C. O. Coad, a divisional director of the Post and Telegraph Department and a member of the New Zealand War Loan Council, and W. Herbison, principal of the commercial division of the General Post Office, Wellington: “Southland’s secret weapon just landed here and caused great stir. Adequate measures taken to deal with menace to Wellington. A great boosting effort. Warm congratulations from two fellow campaigners.” As a result of a Street Day conducted last Friday by the Bluff Women’s Institute, bonds to the value of £5l were sold. WAR LOAN TOTAL NOW £12,781,014 SOUTHLAND HAS 56PER'CENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 22. The Reserve Bank announced tonight that today’s receipts brought the total of the 1945 Victory Loan up to £12,781,014. The cash subscriptions during the day amounted to £315,578, including promises redeemed of £118,651. The amounts and percentages of objectives of the 20 war loan districts are now: —Wellington, £2,118,676 (57 per cent); Auckland, £3,289,328 (56); Southland, £708,130 (56); Taranaki, £504,062 (54); Otago, £1,167,249 (52); Wairarapa, £198,121 (51); South Canterbury, £293,504 (49); North Otago, £118,459 (49); Wanganui, £383,640 (49); Marlborough, £120,783 (47); Northland, £210,227 (46); Gisborne-East Coast, £201,449 (46); Nelson, £235,948 (45); Hawke’s Bay, £429,636 (45); WaikatoKing Country, £604,838 (45); Westland, £148,965 (44); Manawatu, £487,482 (44); Buller, £45,075 (44); Canterbury £1,278,363 (44); Thames-Bay of Plenty, £237,079 (43). NATIONAL - SAVINGS IN WARTIME Contribution In Dominion (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 22. A Victory Loan appeal is being distributed to every householder in the Dominion. This, states the National War Loan Council, is another reminder that nobody with material resources is free from the obligation to place a part of them at the country’s disposal in time of war. An effective way of helping the war effort on the financial front has been devised by the National Savings Committee, which has proved that the so-called “small” investor can become a substantial factor in this sphere. The plans of the National Savings Committee have not only . served the State, but widened the popularity of thrift, which will maintain its value long after the war is over. In the first year of its operation national savings accounts showed an average credit to each depositor of £5, but at the end of last March the average deposit stood at £46. Organized on the national scale, this system of collecting small, but frequent, cash loans for war purposes has piled up an impressive total of £27,442,086 as contributions to five war loans. Tfie withdrawal of so large a sum from current circulation must have appreciably reduced the pressure on the commodity market and lessened “black marketing” temptations. Best of all, this is the most potent method of maintaing sound value for the people’s savings, value measured not merely in figures, but in terms of goods to be ultimately bought from a wider selection than, can be provided today. The Minister of Finance (Mr Nash)

told delegates who recently met to devise plans to help the 1945 Victory Loan: “The best saving that can be made from this country’s point of view is from the earnings on the people, because they are receiving large sums for which there are no commodities available. Today you will be helping us to take out of the flood of money the dangerbus section for which there are no commodities to buy and putting it into war savings.”