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The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 22. NEW ZEALAND'S FINANCIAL

EFFORT. The Acting Minister for Finance , tells us that the total of £75,750,000, cabled from London as the cost of New Zealand's part of the war, is an under-estimate rather than an over-estimate. This is cheering. The actual cost to March 31 last, he says, was £62,500,000. To this has to be added our expenditure on pensions, repatriation, discharged soldiers settlements, interest, etc. It is clear that we are going to receive, little benefit from the levies to be made upon Germany, and that we shall have to rely upon our own resources to meet the liability. At 5 per cent, on £70,000,000 the annual liability, will be £3,500,000, to which must be added war pensions not less than £1,500,000, an extra impost on our resources of five millions a year, or a fourth of our total revenue, or half our revenue of 1913-14. These figures should make people think .hard. They serve to show that the possibility of materially reducing taxation is small, and also indicate the great necessity for increasing production in every way possible. If we do not concentrate on increased production, then there will be a sorry time ahead should prices of our staple articles recede after July of next year, which is quite likely. Increased production is a matter of paramount importance, and to it we should give our closest and undivided attention. For this reason it is essential that in the next Pai'liament there should be the ablest and soundest men in the Dominion—not time-servers and

vote-catchers—who can deal with this question and others of similar importance. "Whilst the burden is heavy, we may take courage from the example of Great Britain, whose war expenditure from August, 1914, to December 31 last was £8,128,000,000. Great Britain spent in four years and five months of war about 45 per cent, of her national wealth. Sir Edward Holden, a leading English banker, recently stated that the increase in the National Debt during the war was £6,750,000,000, and he thinks that the country may have to borrow another £700,000,000 to defray the cost of demobilisation and other charges. Deducting surplus assets of the State, loans to the Dominions, and 50 per cent, of the loans to the Allies as recoverable he estimates the net amount of the whole National Debt (including the £650,000,000 with which Britain began the war) at £6,418,000,000. The £6,750,000,000 which Sir Edward Holden states was borrowed for war purposes up to the end of last year is about 37 per cent, of the national wealth, and between two an J three times the national income. If our war debt is £70,000,000 it represents, approximately, J7f pe" cent, of New Zealand's national wealth. In other words, the war will have cost us about half what it has cost the Mother Country. Another point that must be borne in mind is that Britain financed up to 25 per cent, of her war cost out of income, whereas in New Zealand the bill has been met almost entirely by loans. It is true we have a nest-egg of fifteen millions of accumulated surpluses that may or may not be used in liquidation of our war debt, but Britain faced the music heroically and paid a big part out of revenue. Still New Zealand has done much better than the other colonies. Our war expenditure represents about £6B per head of population, Australia's £SB, Canada's £32, and South Africa's £lB. We are therefore well in the lead. It has, of course, to be remembered that the cost of New Zealand's effort was heavier per soldier on account of the longer distance from the seat of war. New Zealand, however, put more men in the field per head of population than any other part of (the Empire, excepting England, Scotland and Wales, a performance that will always redound to her credit.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19190522.2.17

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1919, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
652

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 22. NEW ZEALAND'S FINANCIAL Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 22. NEW ZEALAND'S FINANCIAL Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1919, Page 4

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