The Taihape Daily Times FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS..

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 6 August 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times

FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS..

AND WAIMASINO ADVOCATE

(With which is ineo'-poratnd The T>ihftpe Pofit 'iiid "Wu.imf\rin«« Newi.)

SPENT ON LUXURIES. ‘ ‘ The national income, when war broke out (the aggregate, that is, 'of the income enjoyed by every individual in the country, rich or poor) was about £2,000,000,000, ’ ’ writes Sir Leo Chiozza Money in the Weekly Lispatch. ‘ ‘ The probable expenditure of £1.130,000,000 in the present financial year therefore means spending publicly in a year a sum equal to about onehalf of a vear’s income.

"It is probable tliat in the lust year of peace rich and poor together spent on luxuries, from motor-cars to tobacco, and from sumptuous dresses to four-ale. fully £600,000,000. That tJiw, is not an excessive estimate may be gathered from the following items, which are near approximations to the truth :—

A Few Branches of Expenditure tn the-East Y.ear of Peace.

Million. Alcoholic drink, . about... ....... ... £IOO Non-alcoholic drink" (inchidiiig tea), about 7() Tobacco, about ■••••• ■ • ...-•••• i, ° New motor pleasure vehicles and,car maintenence,, about 75 • , TjOtaJ. ~..>,.; £:!4 ° ' Now the' £J, 133,000,000 already mentioned i». roundly, made up as fpl- ' Million, Peace expenses of. Government ;•;'•,.; '~i (including. Army and- Navy•'•-. '' ';.,, ■-'•;•."' the preparation of tea, ote.) ; . \ " -expenditure), say ............. £2OO war ....:...;..........,... m Loans to Allies and Colonies ... 200 i Total £1,133

"So that it comes to this: Terribly costVv as the war i 3, it will not cost as twice as mud) and the present supply need not trouble us; without more care than is at present shown it may become an additional war anxiety from which no Government intervention will ful?y deliver us."

DANGER of increased con

SUMPTION

"It must be remembered." says an English banker, "that owing to changed war conditions there is a great risk of our consumption actually increasing. One effect cf our lavish expenditure is to transfer a large amount of income from the wealthier to the poorer classes. A large redistribition of wealth is in process. So far so good. In itself, no doubt, excellent but not if the money which in the hands of the wealthy would be saved is in the hands of its new possessors simply spent. Money is being taken out of the pockets of the investing classes and being redistributed in the form of higher ' wages, war bonuses, separation allowances, and so forth among the non-investing classes. j Consumption is therefore likely ?o increase, and consumption of a kintf not necessarily for the conduct of the war. More food, drink, and tobacco will be consumed; more labour employed in services not contributing to the national strength; more time unprofitable* spent; less money saved. Trie class which is so greatly enriched by the war is not the very poorest clas-, in which case extra expenditure would be justified, but mainly the art Ts- - better-paid working class which is already comfortably off. It is not as if saving were any sacrifice to them. Their own interest and that of the! State absolutely coincide. It is, in- l deed, madness of them not to save in this period of their exceptional prosperity against the certain day of shrinkage in the future." What can vou do without?

DEMOCRACIES AND CONSCRIPTION.

If to bo a conscriptionist is to ho a Prussian, Abraham Lincoln, tho greatest and most unselfish statesman nomocracy has ever produced, was a Prussian. The United States of America was saved.from disaster by universal service. In,France to-day—and'it was the groat French Revolution tftat gave modern Europe its .freedom — every man is. a soldier.. In Italy, where liberty is a treasure hugged to the breast, of. every citizen, every man, and every woman are regarded as the servants of the State unti? victory is won. ',-«., ORGANISING. THE HOME. " —~— - •■ ' Til v great war each side loams something 'from tho oth or. We hayctaught the Germans something about inf-mtr-tactics, ribotit' tho use of aeroplanes, and about rtnval gunnery'. They have

taught vis the necessity of high explnsivos, the rse of heavy artillery in t~.«field, find tho use of poisonous gas barbarous lesson, but one which we cannot .afford to neglect. But tliore is one good lesson which tbe Germans can teneli us "thl. which we have hitherto nop-lectod-. to Team, find that is the lesson of domestic organisation..