The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 21. FORTY-FOUR MILLION POUNDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 21 March 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 21. FORTY-FOUR MILLION POUNDS.

Britain intends to spend, before the pre. sent year is over, a sum of £44,392,501 in lighting ships. This will be an increase of nearly four million pounds on •the estimates for the previous naval year. In order that the two-Power standard may be maintained and Germany's alleged threat to obtain command of the sea may be made of no effect, the Royal Navy will receive tho addition of five battleships, four cruisers, twenty destroyers, six submarines and two gunboats. Germany spends a pound and Britain spends two. We are told, despite the attempt that was recently made to raise a huge naval vote, that the enormous sums of money needed for the new ships and for the completion of those already laid down, the money will be forthcoming without recourse to borrowing. The ability to find money is Britain's strongest weapon. No other country is able to keep up the strain without recourse to the money-lenders, The point that the people of Britain, as well as the other countries, have entered in the warship race may demand the cessation of building as a protest against increased taxation, has often been made, and it is only necessary to view tne figures to be convinced that a time must come when the taxpayer will cry "enough!" Here at a glance are the figures for four successive naval years; Year Total Vote.

If one is "talking in millions" a mere four or five millions docs not seem much to the man who does not remember that four million pounds is approximately forty tons weight of gold and that the total vote will probably be spent in work that is unproductive. From the economic point of view the expenditure of forty-four million odd pounds does not indicate the sum total, for, as has been pointed out, the ships above enumerated will draw thousands of men away from productive occupatibns to an unproductive one. If the power to spend money and to build ships is a criterion of an Empire's ability to retain command of the seas, there seems to bo no fear that Britain will continue to "rule the waves." During the "Dreadnought" boom, both Germany and Britain have done some steady pegging, the German figures showing that in making additions she is pouring a greater proportion oi her citizens' (and her creditors') money into ships than hitherto. The figures are interesting as showing the progress of the race:

The naval programmes of the two countries show that Britain intends by 1914 to possess 30 of the most modern leviathans (they may be super or super-super Dreadnoughts) to Germany's 21. The citizen of the Empire, watching this conflict of expenditure from afar, is vitally interested in it because it is his money that must be spent. He is not taxed according to his ability to pay, although, happily enough, the wealthier of Britain's subjects are to-day being made to subscribe more heavily to a fighting fund by reason of the additional land taxation. The enormous increase in the British naval vote will probably lead to demands in Germany for increases deemed i to' be adequate to keep Germany's navy tip to the required standard, and there is little doubt that the feeling of protest in the Fatherland against increases is even greater than it is in Britain. To both peoples the alternative of arbitra--1 tion for war is temptingly offered, and with a public opinion growing stronger and stronger in antagonism to old methods of settling quarrels, thero may come a time when the people will refuse to inako continued financial sacrifices. The two huge navies which are growing daily are built for use, not ornament. The people who man them want to use them, the people who own them do not want them used. If they do not, want navies to be used, they do not want navies. If they do not build navies ;they have uncountable money to devote to payable purposes. The world may not be ripe for a cessation of the tigerish unrest and the deplorable waste of millions of pounds. It would, however, hail with great joy the news that the great nations by arbitration had decided to cease the building struggle in order to apply their genius to the peaceful arts, Some day perhaps there will be no place in public prints for the terrifying figures that are so full of ominous prophecy of the future. " ■ *MjjjS*J

,-e 190S-00 .... 32,181,309 ]009-10 .... .... 35,931,800 1010-11 .... .... 40,603,700 1011-12 .... •... 44,382,500

1 car. Britain. Germany, £ £ 10(10-07 .. .. 10.850.500 5,342,40(1 1D07-0S .. .. 8.849,580 0,285,225 190S-09 .. .. 8,521,830 7,795,499 1909-10 .. .. 11,052,318 10.177.002 1910-11 .. .. 14,957,430 11,392,85(1 1911-12 .. .. 18,207,000 13,000,000