"AMPLY SECURED."

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1920, Page 8

"AMPLY SECURED."

, OUR FINANCIAL POSITION. TOTAL DEBT, 201 MLLIONS. Referring further to the 'financial position of New Zealand, the Prime Minister states that as the war has been directly responsible for the greater part of the increase in the public debt, he has had the debt analysed and compared with the debt at the end of the financial year 1914-15, the year in which the war broke out. The comparison is:— 18M-15 1910-20 & & Ordinary debt 35,042,025 97,341,781) Discharged soldiers 11,120,000 War debt .., 2,000,000 80,089,025 State advances ... 12,780,485 12,019,950 Totals . '£99,822,510 £201,170,755 These figures show an increase of £401,348,245 in. the puhlic debt in five years. "Against the public debt," Mr. Massey Fays, "we hold tangible assets to the amount of £51,709,791, while the total amount expended on railways, public buildings, telegraphs, and settlement lands amounts to £72,371,643, for which the Dominion holds good value. "The estimated value of Crown lands Is £25,000,000, whilst a sum of £lB,125,154 has been expended on indirectly productive services which may be set off against the debt. "I think it is perfectly clear that the financial position of the Dominion is eminently satisfactory, and that investors iu our loans are amply secured."