A WORD OF WARNING.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1918, Page 6

A WORD OF WARNING.

AGAINST EXTRAVAGANT DEMANDS

In his Financial Statement Sir Joseph Ward uttered a word of warning against too great demands on the Treasury. He said:

I desire to impress upon honorable .members the magnitude of the additional expenditure to which the Treasury would be committed if the pressure that is being brought to bear on the Government from various parts of the Dominion were .to be acceded to. The Government is urged to undertake extensive water-power schemes throughout the Dominion at an estimated expenditure of over £G,000,0()0. A demand for additional educational requirements, amounting to £3,000,000 for new buildings, etc., has been' made from various quarters. Such .-imounts are entirely beyond the capacity of the country to provide sinking-fund charges on war loans amount annually to, say, £3,300,000. Increased pay and war bonus to officers of the Government service, in addition to the ordinary increases due to the classification—say, £1,000,000. Balance of the authorisation for railway improvements, £2,6(57,000. The above services Vlone would represent an additional expenditure of £15,907,000 in round figures, and when we consider that the.se items are in addition to other heavy burdens which the country is shouldering in connection with the war, and that I have made ro mention of the annually recurring expenditure such as for public works, I feel sure that honorable members will fully recognise the difficulties and complexities of future finance if all these services are to be provided for. I feel it my duty to utter an emphatic note of warning 'that it is imperative that honorable members and the public should exercise a restraining influence until the country knows , what its full war responsibilities are, and these can only be ascertained after peace has been signed, and our citizen soldiers have returned to the Dominion and demobilisation has been fully completed. r J