AUSTRALIAN WAR LOAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1818, 25 April 1918, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN WAR LOAN.

When war broke out, Mr Andrew Fisher, then Labour Prime Minister of Australia, pledged the Commonwealth to the last man and the last shilling. We went the limit in loyalty to the Empire. Mr W. H. Watt bluntly stated recently (says the Sydney Herald) that Australia had muddled her man-power. He was determined, however, that we should not do the same thing with our money. Three and a-ha If years have passed, and we have still a long way to go before reaching the last shilling. Mr Denison Miller, governor of the Commonwealth Bank, stated last week that we had only just passed our first shilling. ,To be exact, what Australia had contributed of her wealth amounted to Is 2d in the £l. “The people ofAustralia,” said the financial authority, “have so far lent the Commonwealth for war purposes about £105,000,000. This sum, compared with the wealth of the people as given in Mr Knibb's’ statistics for June, 1915, at £1,643,463,376—and finance writers point out that the increase since brings the figures to £7,800,000,000 —represents only about Is 2d in the £l.” There is still, therefore, another 18s lOd to go before Mr Fisher’s historic pledge is fulfilled. The governor of the Commonwealth Bank added that the sum of £105,000,000 advanced by Australians was really an insurance for the safety of the whole £1,800,000,000. “But,” he continued, “it really goes further. To the wealth of the people must be added the wealth of the nation, which is represented by land untransferred, railways, works of harbours and rivers, water and sewerage, public works, and buildings of all kinds for the construction of which about £357,000,000 has been borrowed. The land of the Commonwealth is given at 1,903,731,840 acres, and of this 105,422,053 acres are in process of alienation, leaving still in the name of the Crown 1,742,213,311 acres, the value of which is unknown. I want to impress upon all the fact that the boys at the front are fighting for Australia, and all it means to us, apart from its material wealth. In ter ms of pounds, shillings, and pence, it is almost impossible to estimate, our heritage, for there are the untold millions which for all time will be produced from our native soil. We can best express our lot by the statement that we are heirs to the most magnificent and richest country in the world. This is our position to-day. The total debt of our country is as follows; —State debts to June 301 b, 1917, £378,000,600; Commonwealth (excluding value of transferred properties, deferred pay, A.1.F., but including the fifth War Savings Certificates), to date £176,500,000; total, £554,500,000. It is therefore apparent that the security for any loans that may bo raised by the Commonwealth Government for war purposes is absolutely safe. With an expenditure, therefore of £80,000,000 on the war, an amount that there is no likelihood of opr exceeding in the future, Australia could go on for a number of years without feeling the pinch. Australia is a producing country, and we win more wealth from the soil than is necessary for our own requirements.”