The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1917. THE DUTY OF LENDING

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13432, 10 March 1917, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1917. THE DUTY OF LENDING

Although the Acting-Minister of Finance has given an authoritative and unmistakable hint that the people of New Zealand will be called upon to subscribe to a further internal loan in order to provide funds for the prosecution of our part in the great war, the actual launching of the project will, of course, not take place until Parliament meets. It may therefore (remarks a contemporary) be deemed a little premature to begin so early to endeavour to impress the community at large, and particularly those of wealth and substance, with the duty devolving upon them in this connection. But it is a matter for which preparation cannot be undertaken too early, and there may be some who imagine that the marvellous success that has attended' the floating of the latest Imperial War Loan absolves them from any obligation to individual effort. There should, however, be no such complacent conception of our duty entertained by any. Although we may all be hopeful that the next few months will see the back of Germany's military power broken, we have ho good reason for thinking that there will in consequence be any sudden -termfnation to the war. It is for us all to fully appreciate the strong possibility of a still protracted struggle ere such a condition of things will be reached as will enable us to propound, with probability of acceptance, terms of peace that will render Prussian militarism innocuous for many decades to come. And, when we look at things in this light, we shall realise that, at the present rate of expenditure, even the vast sum which has been recently collected from the people of the Motherland will, of itself, suffice to carry on the war for something less than six months, and that another appeal to them cannot be very long postponed after the expiry of that time. Our own prosperous Dominion must therefore assume its own manifest responsibilities, and its citizens, looking forward a little, should even now be making ready for the legitimate demands that will assuredly be made upon them.

We have before us, in a great London newspaper, an article written immediately before the great loan was placed upon the market, and there it is said that "even after the Empire has done so much in supplying the financial sinews of war, a fuller, more widespread, and more determined recognition of the duty of lending is required. Too many people have hitherto remained very slow to realise their duty. That has been shown, and is still only too obvious, among large sections of the people who have made considerable profits out of war conditions, by their indulgence in numerous forms of private expenditure, representing an actual improvement for them personally in their standards of living." What is here said applies,' we believe, and with added force, to many members of our own colonial community. Much has been done no doubt to preach, though little to compel economy, and even to secure increased savings, but much has still to be done to bring home the part which self-sacrifice in the use of their money can play in winning the war. The duty of lending, and of learning how to live harder and to save more, in order to lend the money which the State needs, has not been—has not had to be—a part of our ordinary codes of honour or of social ethics in peace. FM§. Investing has been a matter of private profit, and there is still a prevalent inclination to regard investing in a War Loan from the same point of view. But financial service during the war is as necessary as military service. Inlike the paying of taxes, lending to the state is still a voluntary act on the par! of our citizens. Yet loans are just as necessary to the State now as laxes. Apart from the fulfilment of an obvious duty, it may be as well for those who 'hav<> money for which they may fancy they see more profitable channels of investment than a State War Loan to hear in mind thai the study of their own material interests may well react Upon themselves and upon the whole class dt which they belong. The subject 1:,.s already hem mooted in Great Britain as to whether such loans should not, like the payment nt taxes, he made compulsory, so as to secure an equitable distribution. In case ~; am such measure being adopted, we. may be sun that an extra spur will be applied, as it should be, to the laggards of the ! past.