The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1917. THE BIG LOAN.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17066, 20 August 1917, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1917. THE BIG LOAN.

About a year a.go the people of New Zealand wore called upon by the Minister of Finance to subscribe a war loan of £8,000,000 in ten days. The respouse moi'e than justified the appeal, for within the allotted time the public offered more than £9,000,000. Subsequent subscriptions made a total of £11.000,000 of money found in Ne»v. Zealand and placed at the disposal of the Government for the prosecution of the war. At the' time this seemed a great achievement, as'no doubt it was; but a southern contemporary reminds vs —and the remainder is timely and important—'that the mobilisation ot those millions had no appreciable effect, if it had any at all, upon the or> dinaiy financial, commercial, and industrial activities of the country. «t

is important to remember this, because the Government finds it necessary «o make another and a larger appeal for money. As has been made clear by ths published prospectus, the Minister (J Finance is now asking the country tv "go one better" than on the last occasion, and to provide him with a loan of £1.2,000,000. And he has asked for the whole of this amount to be sub-

scribed by the third of next month. This means thai those who have not already done so have another ten days in which to make up their minds about the matter. The time allowed is not very long, certainly, but, with the days already gone since the issue of the prospectus, it is longer than proved sufficient on the last occasion. It has been very tersely said that it surely ought not to take any patriotic New Zealander a week, or even a day, to mako up his mind that if he has any savings available he ought to 'place them at th* service of the Empire ,n the crisis of its fate. The prospectus speaks for itself, and makes it clear that tho terms offered to lenders are mpto than usually attractive. Lenders are offered the option of bearer' bonds or inscribed stock, and there is a reservation of £1,000,000 available for investors "Who may choose to use their serin in payment of death duties. In the subscription of this big loan there 'n, opportunity for the smallest investor— for the person who can only scrape together a pound or so—and for the wealthiest financier, and if each does his utmost then each will be equally entitled to the credit of having don 3 his patriotic duty. It has been pointed out, too, that the Government have induced the banks to help investors hy advancing money at a low rate of in terest—sJ per cent, is the figure men* tioned—for the purpose of taking up tha loan. This meets the case of patriotic citizens who desire to invest in the loan but have not the ready money to enable them to do ®o within the tima prescribed. It ought not to be necessary to stress the fact that .it is the plain and simple duty of every citizen who'can do so to lielp the Govern-! ment in its enormous financial need*: and that the duty is rendered easier by the knowledge that its performance in-l volves not a sacrifice, but a good and! safe investment. 1