THE NATIONAL DEBT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5314, 17 August 1928, Page 1

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

CREDITORS OF OUR. DOMINION. ALLOCATION OF AMOUNTS. Speaking at a gathering organised by the combined Wellington branches of .the Junior Reform League last Saturday evening the Hon. K. S. Williams, Minister of Public Works and Acting-Postmaster-General, explained that £107,470,429 of the gross national debt at March 31, 1928 (£251,396,252), was held in New Zealand. This, he said, might be a. surprise to some of his listeners, but the money was lent to the country by people in the Dominion and the interest was being, paid to them. Of the rest of the debt, £139,753,973 was held in London, and £4,168,850 was held in Australia. The gross annual charges, on this debt, comprising interest, annua.l sinking funds, repayment of funded debt, and' public debt repayments amounted to, £12,517,136. The difference between war debt and ordinary debt was very clearly shown by .a,n examination of relative interest burdens on. the taxpayer. Of the 1927-28 charges on the taxpayers, interest on approximately £72,000,000 of war debt a,mo,un:ted to £3,489,334, as against £2,104,672 for the remainder, of the debt, amounting to £179,000,000. “In ordinary words, the ordinary debt is about two and ahalf times as large as the war debt,” he'said, “but if costs the. taxpayer about, £1,250,000 less than wan debt annually.”