The Dominion

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2554, 31 August 1915, Page 4

The Dominion

. 1 . TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1915, . 1 ' 1 ■" ' ' ( BORROWING AND SPENDING * , —— i The more closely the details of the j Budget, presented to,;, Parliament by , Sin Joseph Ward are examined the less satisfactory they appear. The Public Works Loan proposal of the i National Ministry must be regarded j as in the nature of a compulsory resort to tho local money market. It is clear from tho guarded rcfercnco , to the subject in tho Budget that ! the Government put out feelers as to j the possibility of raising a Public , Works Loan on the London market * with discouraging results. Even a ] loan for works already contracted > for and under construction, we arc , told, could only have boon iloated , on. terms which were considered ' while the High ' Commissioner advised that a loan ' for new undertakings would not meet with favour at all. This left ®, uo other co.ursc open to the Govern- v mcnt than to borrow locally, and we li desire to make it quite clear that !j we take, no exception to the pro- " posed procedure. What we do ques- j 1 lion is the action , of tho Govern-. « meat in proposing to raiss a two* »

million instead of a one million : loan for public works purposes as though the times were normal -ancl the financial future without anxiety. We pointed out a few days ago that_ in the Mother Country, despite its enormous financial resources, the warning hacl gone forth, and was being acted on, that all public expenditure outside 1 °, f war purposes and production r kept to tho lowest possible limits. This precaution was necessary in order to conserve the finan--1 aar strength of the nation to meet the tremendous strain which must be endured in the event of the war . bemg prolonged. No public expenditure that is not absolutely ncces- - sary at the moment should be permitted. . Every thousand pounds saved by tho postponement of some s public work in the nature 'of a luxury designed for, tho convenience or comfort of the public means a . thousand pounds extra towards the successful prosecution of the war, and. possibly a thousand pounds that will be urgently needed. It is vital that we should win. in this warfailure would i mean not merely a . tragic humiliation, but financial ' disaster. It is in the circumstances a.'comparatively small thing to ask • the public to bear, a certain amount : of inconvenience in tho way of decayed public work's in order" to keep possible pound free, for expen•t cliture on purposes associated with the-conduct of tho. war. , Yet our National Ministry - does not appear to have* had the couragc ttf adopt this course. It Ms true that it has asked local bodies and members of Parliament, not to press for any but- necessary expenditure, but it has afforded no satisfactory evidence_"that it intends to pursue a bold and resolute course and decline to proceed with any but the most urgently necessary public works, can we see in the Consolidated '-"Sk'mafces any evidence that the Minister of Finance and his colleagues realise the necessity for cutting off waste and ' unnecessary expenditure. The Tourist Department, tor instance, is to be kept going at its full strength with all its costly accessories; whereas as everyono must realise the present is not a time when we can expect'to look for tou rist traffic. Many' of the officers of the Tourist Department might be more usefully employDepartments which are working under extra strain as the result of the war, instead of those Departments being put to the expense of employing casual clerks. Some of tho military officers and non-com-missioned officers in the Defence Office also might in this way be relieved by civilians _ for more useful service at the training camps. There are scores of items in the votes for • the _ various Departments— grants, subsidies, printing work, "etc.—which might well_ be excised this year 'and a saying made without anyone suffering any material hardship or tho State risking any injury. We ,do not suggest any'interterence with salaries or anything of that nature, but there are thousands of pounds'spent every year under the heading . "Miscellaneous Services which though .warranted in .normal times could with advantage be saved now. We mention the Consolidated Fund expenditure merely to emphasise our 'view that the Finance Minister and the Governmoiit are' not yet fully alive to the added responsibility which rests on thosp who administer the nation's affairs in these critical times. It would be thought that the fact that tho Hijrh Commissioner had advised that a Public Works Loan would not meet with favour on the London market would have been sufficient to warn Ministers against any but the most urgent expenditure on miblic works.; It cannot be doubted that those in' London who ' usually are ready enough to finance ' our loans are any less friendly to us'now than in the past. Why, then, did they discourage this loan unless it is that they_saw the unwisdom of such expenditure at a time like the present and had better uses; for tho money.' Ihe Home Government-has financed our War Loans because recognised that they were necessary, but it will hot atmarentl.v finance bur loans for public "works. In these circumstances, .is it wise for the Government to press for a two-mil-lion Public Works Loan; and, still more imnortant, is it wise to maintain so high a rate of miblic works expenditure as the Budget suggests ? Unhesitatingly we say the Government is. making -a mistake, and a serious 'one. Ministers would be well advised to amend both their loan and their public • works proposals. If_ one million of the loan were set aside'for public works purposes and the other million for war purposes, it would be a far sounder nolicy and a far more potmlar'one from the point of view'of the rmblic who are to be asked to subscribe the 1 loan money,