COST OF WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1744, 4 August 1917, Page 1

COST OF WAR.

REACHING £50,000,000,

£1,900,000 A MONTH. A most; important portion of the Budget was that which related to the cost of the war. It was abatement of what New Zealand has to do in the matter of financing her particular part of the agreement. What the Finance Minister had to .say further on the subject was as under: — “The current expenditure 4ir'connection with the war may lie estimated at approximately £1,900,000 a month. Fortunately, however, the resources of the country are able to bear the heavy strain which is being placed upon them, and though anxious as to the future, I have the utmost confidence that the people of the Dominion can be fully relied upon to provide the necessary means. “In addition to the expenses of training, equipment, transport,, etc., of our troops, (here are maintenanceexpenses being continually incurred at the seat of war, which, for the purposes of convenience, are being defrayed by the Imperial Government. Claims are subsequently made by the War Office to cover this expenditure, and the claims so made up 'and provided for to the 31st December, 1910, amounted to £4,500,000. “During last session of Parliament I asked the House to grant the necessary authority to enable jhe Government to raise a sum of £lO,000,000 for the purpose mentioned, and immediate steps were taken to place the. prospectus before the public for the llotation of a loan of £8,000,000. The response to this appeal was most gratifying, as the sum was largely over-subscribed. “I wish to thank the bank’s and other institutions for their liberal subscriptions, and also the press, which assisted materially in making the loan a success. The public also is to be congratulated upon the liberal manner in which it subscribed. “Since the eomcncement of hostilities (he war expenditure of the Dominion had, up to 30th June last, reached the large sum of £28,439,912, and as this expenditure is increasing in proportion to the increased number of men we are despatching to the seat of war, it is probable that by the time the House meets again the expenditure will have reached £50,000,000, and I need not remind honourable members of the sacrifices which the people of t he Dominion must be prepared to make in order to meet this huge expenditure. It is of paramount importance that this should be recognised by every one in the count ry. “I am pleased to be able to inform members that not only has a considerable amount of money for war purposes been raised in New Zealand through the Treasury and Post Office-Departments, but funds have been provided for carrying on other necessary services as well. “It will be remembered that during the early stages of the war the Dominion was dependent upon the Imperial Government for advances to enable it to train and equip its soldiers and maintain them at the seat of war. For a time this Whs necessary, but as soon as it was possible for New Zealand to provide its own funds for defraying the expenditure necessary for the conduct of its share of the war it was done.”