BRITAIN'S NATIONAL DEBT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 2 November 1925, Page 4

BRITAIN'S NATIONAL DEBT.

A STAGGERING BILL. The annual return of the National Debt position, just issued, can hardly fail to renew in the mind of the reader ft :-orubre sense of the immensity of the task which its gradual reduction will impose on this and future generations, and of the extraordinary patience which thnt task will involve. Thus we find that while during the year ended April 1, 1!I2.~>. the "(load weight -, debt declined liy £34,241,000,000 to £7,fi46,----:!71.78f. (made up of £0.524.771,014 of "internal"' and £1.121,590,874 of "extPrnal" debti ,the total provision for interest, management, and repayment [which is, of cour.se. the true measure of the "burden" of the National Debt) actually increased by nearly 10 millinns, to £357,1(11.201." That "figure, indeed, represents by far the highest amount which tills country has ever spent, on the National Debt, for even in the year 1020-21 (since when some f>oo millions of cash has been applied to debt redemption) the total cost of the debt provision was only £340,598,----iKiO. The increase is, of course, easily eyplnined by the Tise in the sinking fund provision (43 millions in 1924-25 again = t 21 millions in 1920-21), and by the American debt settlement, hut the fact remains that, nearly eight years after the end of the war, the cost of the debt is still tending upwards—it will probably reach its zenith in the current financial year, when a further five millions has to be provided for the sinking fund. The dead-weight figure of £7,640,----371.788, which is about 175 millions below the peak figure of £7,821.744,300 for April 1, 1020, represents the total normal amount of the debt, excluding ■certain "other capital liabilities," including, for example, Government annuities, valued on April 1, 1025, at £68,----032,002, but it includes £48,523.735 of funding loan and victory bonds tendered for death held by the "National Debt Crmrmissioners until drawn or paid off, which are no longer, of course, a genuine liability.