PAYING FOR THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, 22 April 1919, Page 5

PAYING FOR THE WAR.

FINANCES OF DOMINION. GREATER PRODUCTION URGED. The financial position of the Dominion and the inroads made upon the national wealth by the d'emands of the war formed the subject of a statement by the Acting-Minister for Finance. t\)c Hon. Arthur M. livers, on Thursday.

"By an authoritative source,' 7 said Hi Myers, "I observe that the estimated national wealth of the United Kingdom is some £18,000,000,000. Thirty-four per cent of this—£o,otis, 000.000 —has been expended by Britain on the war. The national income is J estimated at some £2,400,000,000 per annum, so that Britain mny be said to have mortgaged between two and three years' income. Making a similar comparison in regard to Now Zealand, taking the pre-war estimate, approximately our national wealth aggregates some £400,000,000, about fifteen per cent of which—£ol,ooo,ooo— has already been I applied to meeting our war obligations. Our national income is estimated to b e I some £55,000,000. so that to the present jwe have spent something over one ' year's income en the war. The deadi j weight debt incurred during the war cannot yet be definitely stinted, for pension liabilities, cost of repatriation, gratuities, and allowances, etc., Avill .continue for many years to come. The fact remains, however, that we have made a heavy drain on our resources, and it is incumbent upon us to set to work to refill the gap, always bearing in mind that any dislocation of industry or capital would defeat our object by the creation of another and perhaps larger dra:n in another 'direction. Every effort must be made to develop the resources of the country, applying scientific methods to our primary and I secondary industries, to the end that i we may increase our production to the greatest possible extent."