NATIONAL THRIFT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 17, 20 January 1916, Page 4

NATIONAL THRIFT.

The British Government is not yetsatisfied with tho savings of the nation. Tho other day Cabinet again appealed for economy, and forbearance in asking for higher wages. Now we are told that a vast economy ' campaign is probable, and that compulsory thrift, even, to the regulation of rations; is being talked oi by Ministers. There is, of, course, already a measure of compulsion in the taxes and other restrictions on luxuries. For instance, the average expenditure on drink was recently over 6/6 per family per week, and the Government, it is said, hopes that its,.'restrictions- on• tbe sale of liquor will cut down the bill by oncbalf, thereby' leaving £80,000,000 available for the'war loan. The consumption of-tea wn3 ten ounces per head higher in 1013 than in 1005, and it is hoped that under increased taxation the people will revert to the consumption of ten years ago, and save 25,000,000 lbs.

Mr. Asquith and two other Ministers put tho necessity for economy ' very plainly at a conference held in December with Labour leaders from all parts of the kingdom. After pointing 'out what the Government had done to compel payment frpm t,he wealthier classes, Mr. Asquith said that since the war 4,500,000 workmen ;had obtained rises in wages averaging 3/8 .per week, and urged that a large number were better off than ever before.' The statements cabled to us from/time to time of the lavish buying by/the .populace are not inventions of.'the Northcliffe Press. They .are borne out by, the observations. of "visitors to England, and by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who at this conference spoke vory plainly on * the ;mibject. Mr. McKenn>said that the working-lmen who were spending their higher wages freely Were' adding, to the nation's difficulties i by increasing the •ronsumption *of impprtei goods. The spending of wages now i tended, ta-increase .prices, -which.led to a I for..more wages, a_L*'W'_ vicious system was set up, which could only end in the ruin of tho country. There is; of coilrse,' a .vast amount of 6avjng going on r and it is not confined to anj ond? class. But it is true, as a writer says' who in other matters declines to accept charges made, against the worker that "while the German working-class household" is faced with tlie tragic question how to live, tho British housewife is quite often faced-with, the novel ques;tion of how-to spend.'' The was so. impressed by .what it.had heard that it carried a resolution* to arrange for the distribution of;copies of the official report "of the speeches among trade unionists, and commend the appeals to their-'consideration. A hostile* amendment/ which a .Labour M.F V .described as being .worth at least, a dozen divisions to the, German -army.'found only forty I?M9S? r * ou * of. a thousand delegates. . These earnest appeals by Ministers in England should he "thought over by the Government and the people of New Zealand. "\Vhile -the Home Government is imposing very' heavy taxation and striving to make every section of tbe community save; so that the gigantic bufdenvof the -war may, be shouldered, .we-are not -utilising the profits which the war is giving to our producers, and are going on borrowing ffoiri England. The balance of trade is against England, and the Government is anxiously trying to redress •it as -much as possible. Our.balance is with us, and we are levying no taxes on the extra* profits it produces. Because of the accumulation of .wealth arising. from this surplus of exports over imports, the j financial sacrifices demanded of us are nothing like those required of the people of Britain. But we should not Jose sight of the fact that the war is imposing on the country a great burden, which will have to be faced in the future, and that economies are necessary to provide against.conditions that may arise when; peace is restored.