COST OF THE WAR

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 149, 23 January 1903, Page 4

COST OF THE WAR

Calculations made fx-om. Government returns show that the- South African war cost the nation over ,£240,000,000. It is naturally interesting to observe in detail how the colossal sum was expended. The following table comprises an analysis indicating the amount spent on sixteen main charges. Of these, it will be seen that four constitute a very large percentage of the whele—viz., the pay of the troops, regulars and irregulars, amounting to nearly <£68,000,000, transports and remounts <£51,000,000, provisions and forage .£54,000,000,'and warlike stores .£31,000,000 : Pay, etc ,of Army .. .£58,178,500. Medical services. . . . 2,646,600 Militia pay, etc 6,101,600 Yeomanry pay, etc. .. 519,020 Volunteer corps’ pay, etc. 2,963,200 Transports and remounts 51,741,500 Provisions, forage, etc. 54,423,800 Clothing .... . . 13.756,700 Warlike stores .. .. 31,170,000 Works .... . . 9,258.083 Military education . . 371,600 Miscellaneous effective charges 782,650 War Office. . . . . . 640,300 Non-effective ch’ges (officers) 5,561,929 Non-effective charges (men) 3,850,510 Superannuation and compensation allowances . . 374,700 Total . . . . . . .£242,340,692 An official estimate of the total cost of the South African war places it at .£222,974,000, and it may 7 be that in the above table there are included certain charges which the War Office does not reckon as arising directly out of the operations in South Africa. It will be noted that the Government returns do not analyse the sums spent on tiansports and remounts. We understand, however, (says the Daily Mail), that, roughly, the expenditure on transport was about .£29,500,000. From the figures given above a number of interesting calculations can easily be made. -For instance, in pay to tioops —regulars, militia, yeomanry 7 and volunteers —the Government have spent nearly 7 .£68,000,000. It has betn calculated that, roughly', 350,000 men were despatched to South Africa. An easy sum in arithmetic shows that on an average each man has received, or should have received, in pay <£l97. For transportation the Government paid .£29,500,000, and, calculating on the above basis, with the additonal hypothesis that about 350,000 horses were shipped to the Cape, it will be seen that for tt ansportatiun alone the country has paid, roughly ,£B4 for one man and his horse. In feeding the 350,000 men and, say, 350,000 horses, the Government spent L 54,423,800, ■which, roughly, works out at L 77 for each man and his horse.