MATURING OBLIGATIONS.
A moderate amount of this Debt will mature in the quite near future, and . we are, unfortunately, living in times when, owing to the general value of money and the level of other investment stocks, conversion on lines effecting a radical reduction in the annual debt service as a whole is not yet possible. For the time being, therefore, it is only possible to deal piecemeal with such portions of the debt as may fall due from time to time. The Government's proposals for meeting the unconverted balance of the National War Bonds maturing on the first of next month are regarded as satisfactory, and the offer has been well -received in the market. No one will deny that so far as debt redemption is concerned we have played our part manfully since the War, and it may be doubted whether debt redemption on a larger scale, even if it had been possible, would have been desirable, because in such reduction as has taken -place we have already probably experienced quite is ranch in the way of deflation as the country Can bear at the present time.
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