The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1913. CAN BRITAIN RETRENCH?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 164, 10 January 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1913. CAN BRITAIN RETRENCH?

"Is it not time for statesmen and for men of business to take counsel together to secure a saner and a more fruitful appropriation of the common^ resources of mankind';" So asked the British Prime Minister in a recent Guildhall speech. A number of people think that such a time has come, and they met in London to protest against the ever-in-creasing expenditure of public money on armaneuts. Lord Welby moved a resolution expressing the .opinion that the money spent by the nation on armaments was excessive, and was based' on fear and not reason, and calling for a reduction. Mr. G. N. Barnes, in seconding, said that one of the most disgracc- | till episodes in-Parliament w'as five years I ago, when Mr. McKcnna, who was (hen j First Lord of the Admiralty, came down to the House of Commons and told a cock-and-bull story about the acceleration of the German programme- Every single one of the predictions had been falsified by results. Mr. F. W. Hirst moved a resolution in favor of abolishI ing prize, money and capture at soa. | Sir Algernon West moved a third resoj lution suggesting economics and redue- : tion in the Government departments. "There might be a ease for spending no money at all upon the Navy and putting up our shutters as a naval Power. But if we are to have a navy, it is sheer insanity to proviue a force too weak for its work, and to spoil the ship for the cost of a bucket of tar," says the Daily [ Mail. "Other nations are milking portentous efforts at sea. While the British naval expenditure has only risen by £11,000,0$) iu the last ten years, an official return issued last month showed that the outlay of other powers had advanced as follows:

flerniany £13,000,000 ltussia - 12,000.001) United States i 1.000.000 France 5i,000,000 Japan 7,750,000 111 face of Hiese grim figures do our Kadieal contemporaries pretend that it is safe for this country to starve its licet?" asks the Mail. ''What wc feel,'' says the Chronicle, ''is that in most of our departments an undue freedom of expenditure prevails, due to tlie subtle relaxation during the last twenty years of the old Treasury control; and that in some of the spending departments, notably at the Admiralty, the technical aspects of the work have be come so enormously multiplied and complicated that it is far harder than it was a generation ago for the Minister in charge (wliof is necessarily and properly an amateur) to avoid being unduly controlled by hist technical advisers. What i.i the remedy for tlie first evil—the inadequate control of departmental expenditure' Something might be gained, we believe, by a reconstitution of the departments, -which 011 other grounds is much to lie -desired." "Half a century ago the Budget Estimates for year to year hovered about seventy millions Mel-ling," says the Telegraph: "At the end. of another decade they reached eighty millions. -So ominous were the signs of expansion that Mr. Gladstone told the House of Commons that he feared the time was not far distant when, our national outlay would amount to a round one hundred millions. That fear was not long in being realised. The figure which the great statesman has indicated was soon reached and exceeded. The prospect now is that next year the expenditure of the country will be within measurable distance of two hundred millions. Statistics illustrating this extraordinary advance will he interesting:

Total Per expenditure head ,C £ s d. I Kit.) .. HllV.WS.ftl'O .. 2 U II IWU .. 143,f57.1>ft0 .. ;j 10 (i .. 151,7G5,1J00 .. 3 W II mil) i.-)7,!)-u.ni«t .. :i i<> i I !•! 1 .. 171,!1,V),1HH1 .. 3 10 7 I»I2 .. 175,.-,4.">,I'I(II) .. 3 18 10 I:U3 .. 188,(>23,i:!;0 .. 4 10 I'lie total expenditure on the Army was in 1.1)01 -■), a ml 6-28,071,000 in HU2-13, thus .showing; a slig'lit reduction. Tint while the cosL of the Navy was C:!li,S:!l),<)00 iir I!M>4-o, it rose to lMl>.3Bii,ooo in 111 111-11, to :1M2,381i.00(> ill mil-12, and to UH.:!«."i,0l)0 in 1111213. Next, year it will pruhiiblj exeved l."ii).iS:;i,l«l(). It i„ in the Civil Services and Kevcnuc Departments, however, that the ntoM. serious expansion lias occurred. It is here that the new servieus and new ollicials have to lie paid fur, and the figures are so signilieeut as to deserve being -fl't out in full: I'l"3-I L' 1a,027,000 1"0»-10 1,2,040,000 lillO-11 «i.(i!)S.CM>O 1"' 112 70,4!)!).(!OO ' 012-13 70,108,000 (ill January 1, 100!), ohl-age pensions became payable for the lirst time, and oil the last day of IAI2 mili.MS men ami womvn of 70 and over received payments amountin» to £21,000,000. It is only

fair to stale that the pensions have led to an appreciable diminution of pauperism. The number of people over 70 receiving outdoor relief fell from 108,090 i:i 1000 to iu l!)l,'i. The charges ir. respect of Insurance and Labor Exchanges amounts to £ 7,4!1!),(XJ0 in the current year. Like old-age pensions, tiiis is (pule a new item of expenditure."