The Waipawa Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1917. LIBERTY LOAN.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7920, 18 August 1917, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1917. LIBERTY LOAN.

We are fighting for a worthy purpose, and shall not lay down our arms until that purpose has been fulfilled.

The above is an extract from the King’s Speech in proroguing Parliament on September 18th, 1914, and the determination of the British people, as expressed through their Sovereign three years ago, is just as firm to-day as it was then. There can be no turning back. Having gone so far we are bound to see it' through. We owe it to the memory of those who have, made the supreme sacrifice, to the suffering women and children of France, Belgium, and Servia. But to achieve this much-to-be-desired result money, men and munitions are essential. For the first-named the New Zealand Government is now appealing to the public, in the form of a “Liberty Loan” of £12,000,000. The Minister for Finance has obtained Parliamentary sanction for raising in the Dominion £24,000,000 by loan “to be utilised by the Dominion for war purposes only,” and the £12,000,000 above referred to is the first instalment. In the House of Representatives the Minister made it as plain as it is possible to make it .that this £12,000,000 now asked for is “absolutely essential.” The alternative is increased taxation, if the undesirable expedient of compulsory subscription to war loans is to be avoided.

A comparison of the £12,000,000 loan prospectus with its predecessor, the £8,000,000 loan (for which £ll,000,000 lias been subscribed), shows that the Minister has seriously endea'vored to meet the wishes of every class of investor, and to remove many of the objections raised by those who may have deferred participation in the First War Loan. Sir Joseph Ward had the great advantage when in the United Kingdom of being actively interested in the “Victory Loan” campaign. The benefits of his experience then gained, together with his intimate knowledge of local conditions, may be discerned in the variations made in the prospectus for the Second War Loan when compared with that of the first. Even now it may be possible to suggest further improvements; but there is no uncertainty whatsoever as to the urgent need for the money, nor of the duty of every person, according to his or her financial capacity, to furnish it, as quickly as possible. The terms of the loan are attractive, the security is the Dominion as a whole. The cause is vital, not to the nation only, but to every individual, for any relaxation of our part in the war is unthinkable. In a very real sense, in some respects a tragic sense, this is “our war” as much as that of the Mother Country, and we must pay for it. If not by loan, then in some other and more drastic manner.