PATRIOTIC FINANCE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 262, 9 December 1914, Page 6

PATRIOTIC FINANCE.

To the Editor of THE SXJN. Sir,—Pour months ago I wrote pointing out .that there . was five and a half niiliions of coin a,n<i bullion in our banks, and that, as banknotes had been made legal: tender, all the gold might as well be sent to England. ; The bank returns for September that there! are now five and a-half millions of coin and a quarter of a million of bullion. Until the war is over and, for some time afterwards, we are not likely to have anything but banknotes and cheques in circulation; a,s for half-sover-eigns, there is no reason why we should not use 10/- postal notes instead.* The Commonwealth, with a population of less than five millions, issued nearly, £500,000 in 10/- notes, and they are very popular. Why, theft, should we not circulate £IOO,OOO of them for.. the profit, of the State? In England these postal notes (and £1 postal notes) have been made legal tender, if required, and in France they have issued banknotes for five francs, or four shillings. We have often heard of the German war indemnity of £6,000,000, locked up in 1200 chests of £SOOO each, in the Julius Tower of Spandau. Five millions of gold would surely be of greater value, just now, to the British war finance! The gold reserves in the Bank of England on August 6 were less tha,n thirty "millions. Now they are over seventy millions. An extra five millions of gold there would be of the greatest value, not only to England, but to ourselves, for at the present time all the finance of the British Empire depends upon the Bank of England. The interest on five and a-half millions, at only four per cent, for four months, would be over £70,000. We have made nothing of it. What would it have been worth in England? Of course, we should have reduced our debt—we might have bought New Zealand debentures probably at £7O each. It is a most foolish, dog-in-tne-manger, anti-patvotic policy to keep the gold here, when every sovereign is wanted at homeland is Useless here.—l am, etc., J. MILES VERRALL. Swannanoa, 5/12/14.