CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1916, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

FINANCIAL EFFECT OF THE WAR. By comparing the estimated receipts from taxes in the British Budgets of the last four years, it is possible to trace the growth of the taxation burden imposed by war. The figures are:— Budget of 1913-14 ... ,£160,000,000 „ „ 1914-15 ..„. 171,300,000 „ „ 1915-16 ...• 265,074,000 „ „ 1916-17 .... 450,000,000 The last-mentioned figure is contained in a recent cablegram. These totals represent, of course, taxation pure and simple. If non-tax revenue and loans are added, the figures become immense. 'With regard to expenditure, in 1915-10 the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to spend £1,589,700,000. Two years before, in 1913-14, he proposed to spend £195,825,000; and at that time people stood aghast at the prospect of a £200,000,000 Budget. So in two short years the figures they dread have been exceeded more than sevenfold. Twenty years before 1913-14 the Budget expenditure was under £100,000,000, and the critics of that day were equally impressed by its volume. The national debt, according to Sir George Paish, was £707,000,000 before the war; it is now nearly £2,400,000,000; and after another year of war will b e not far short of £4,000,000,000. The evidence of the financial experts is particularly satisfactory, in so far as it bears on'the question of a prolonged war. Many people have asked the question: "Will the financial strain pull down not only Germany, but Britain as well?" SirGeorgo Paish's evidence amounts to a negative. In the ultimate test, Britain will be burcloned, but Germany is likely to be crippled for a generation. Destiny offered Germany peaceful victories—showered them upon her. Germany forsook them for the sword, with which she is now slashing the roots of her own prosperity. To thoroughly punish her, Destiny is encouraging her to continue by offering her just that degree of military success on land as shall harden the 'heart of Pharaoh and inspire' his generals to continue their fight against fate. To be defeated at the outset is, for the modern nation, a much less punishment than to be partially successful for years and then, in the ultimate, utterly worsted. Is it for a greater punishment such a3 this that 'Destiny has shaped Germany's course ?—Wellington Post.