Poster, 'Liberty Loan'

The New Zealand government financed the country's contribution to World War II from internal resources, raising substantial amounts through taxation, internal loans, and encouraging people to put money into National Savings accounts. Posters played a significant part in the associated fund-raising campaigns, making intense appeals to New Zealanders' sense of patriotism and sacrifice. This small format poster was made for the first Liberty Loan of 1942 (there were two Liberty Loans that year), and features a simple motif of a torch-bearing hand, evoking the Statue of Liberty.

Liberty Loans
Seven loans in total were floated during the war, with the aim of raising a total of £145 million. They were huge, dramatic, held only once or twice a year, and generally attracted larger investments from businesses, public bodies, and wealthier individuals. A key intention of the loans was to absorb New Zealanders' private savings, which had increased due to the paucity of goods and services (which had been diverted to the war effort), thereby offsetting inflation. The emotional premise of the loans was to conscript wealth in the same spirit as the conscription of people, and to essentially make ordinary citizens shareholders in the war effort. Even though it was acknowledged that money could never equal the loss of life or injury to soldiers, the risks were to be shared between soldiers and civilians, and be rewarded with pay and interest respectively.

Display
This poster would have been seen where loan business was transacted (banks, post offices, brokers' offices) or overhead inside trams.