NEW ZEALAND'S WAR BILL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2799, 17 June 1916, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND'S WAR BILL

New Zealand's war expenditure is mounting up at a continuallyincreasing rate.; The actual expenditure for the first ten months of the war (up to June 30, 1915) was about £3,500,000! •- This works out at £350,000 a' month. ' To-day it is a good deal more than double that sum, and in the Budget presented to Parliament last night the Finance Minister declares that the cost of the war will probably.: soon exceed £1,000,000 a month'.v .These are undoubtedly large figures for a country like New Zealand, with a population of a little, over, a." mil--ion. but they seem to shrivel lip when placed alongside the financial burden_ which the war has cast upon tho British taxpayers. The war-is costing the United Kingdom about £150,000,000 a. month. This expenditure is equivalent to over S3 per head of population ■in the United Kingdom, as against less than £l per head in New Zealand. The borrowing authorised for war purposes during the sessions of 1914. and 1915, added to the amount proposed , in the present Budget,- means,-an .addition- oi £24,000,000 to our national debt, which stood at £91,689,835 on March 31, 1914. ..This represents a big increase; but New Zealand is very prosperous and is well able to bear this- substantial addition to its financial load. It will not press so hardly on the people of this Dominion as will the enormous leap in the British national debt (i'rpm £G,'i1,000,000 beEore the war to £3,440,000,000, including £800.000,000 advanced to Allies and Dominions, at the' end- of the present .financial year) on the people of Great Britain. The war borrowing authorised by the. New Zealand Parliament, including the-sum mentioned in the present Budget, is as follows: — ... £ I'JH-15 „ 2,000,000 1915-1 G./ 10,000,000 181G-17 (....! 12,000,000

. ; J52i,000,000 . In addition..to the above amounts, £2,000,000 was raised Ideally last year for' public 'works,- and' it /is proposed to take power to raise £500,000 this .year, from-the - Post Office funds'for the same, purpose. In asking for the £2,000,000, last year, tho Finance jlinister_ intimated that a strict" ; watch would be kept on expenditure, - and that the sum named would probably enable- the Government to keep tilings going well on into the financial year. It may not be found necessary to raise the £500,000 referred to in this year's Budget, but power is to be taken to.borrow it as a pre-, cautionary measure. The Government is justified in adopting this course in order to be in a position to meet any unforeseen .emergency. It is, however, the duty of Ministers to carefully scrutinise every ponny of expenditure. Only work that is really necessary and profitable from the strictly national, point of view should be undertaken at the present juncture. Other work should be postponed/till a more convenient season. iThe country fully .re.cognises that heavy borrowing' is-in-evitable if we aro to fulfil our'mili-, tary obligations to the Empire, and:'! the people are ready and • willing'! and able to find whatever money is necessary to enable the' Government to make adequate provision for the loans. .Thanks to tho might and ceaseless vigilance" of ntlib YSritisK'. Fleet, our-exp'ort tradeis fldftraK-' ing, and no State _ in tho Empire is , ln t a better position to finance its military responsibilities/