AUSTRALIAN STATES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 101, 2 May 1925, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN STATES

WHAT EACH OWES

SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN

TWELVE YEAfiS,

On 31st December, 1914, the first year of the Great War, the Australian Staled owed £317,598,788. By the end of the war in 1918 they had increased their indebtedness to. £392,540;161, declares the Melbourne "Argus." in the following year they were extremely modest iii borrowing, the total amount raised in the year being only £3,816j988. But in each succeeding year to and including 1923—the last year for which statistics are available—borrowings increased at a rapid and dangerous" rate. In order to demonstrate clearly the enormous increase of State indebtedness since 1914 the total amounts of their debts as existing on 31st December of each year tabled g'V6n ia tllei lowing

1914 •■< ...i ... 317j598,788 l^S - 342,925,669 1916 357,813,771 1917 ... .. 372,517,624 1918 392,540,161 1919 ' 396,356,149 1920 ... 417,309,772 1921 ... ; 458,408^ 1922 ... 500,880,627 1923 550,878,641 (Figures given are at 31st December of each year.) . . But even more significant still are the fS^.g.ol^ b^k to 1911, when' the 7?ri ?l& V n deb'eanfeS8 was only £271,----lW^li %T *&" ■*""* to the end *>f 1«23 the States have, doubled their liabilities to the investing public, and as yet there are no sigtts of modetation being observed. How serious the situation has become will be easily recognised from investigation into the consequences £ken epf a ce ea6lVe b™ihS has

In 1923 the States were faced with a liability for interest of £26,628 457 Of this amount nearly £I^ooo,ooo -was de rived from earnings of railways and va"™s. °'her Public activities. There consequently remained a dead weight of interest of nearly £9,000,000. WeW fnn/ Uf h^S accumul»<*d a sinking fund of approximately £9,000,000 hay ing been far ahead of all thb 'othL States in recognising the urgency of ptoviflmgto meet debts at maturity. VieA r'^°mn S "'urn With a siilKing fund or hi 000,000, while the whole of the sinking f und accumu ja ted b Ne Wales only amounts to £532,163, £4l5 e0^ lAS; lon R6f lth t •?*** more tKa» i 415,000,000. But of this amount war loans account for niore than £350,000----000, leaving other debts at £65,000,000. J!rom- the gross Commonwealth indebt favfto b^ 000 '000 large d^^ nave to be made; represented bY sums repayable in ca6 h to the Treasury un expended loan moneys, and sihk^ funds. These items total £80 0000OflS so thM the het indebtedness Wffll monwealth is reduced to £335,000,000 nvolving a yearly cash payment tovin'. v r£2O aSS)™ k % °{ W-Ue-iy £20,000,000, less ihterest falling due on Joans entered into for the States Certain deductions have also to be S in respect of other transactions Pra? tica ly the whole of the interest payable by thb Commonwealth is a war iSR reV^nue '1S deffa^ed'fr^ consolida d'

crease m production. The. folbwJng 1 itrucMte"-" COmParativ« «»ulhi ; 'fif ttYear. , D | bt . fraction. \w\ •'" - 271,750,000 188,4(1,600 1923 570,000,000 . 346;652,000 1911, j)er capita production :.. 41 I 10 xaau, per capita prddiiction .. t 30 4 2 IW6, per capita production ... 40 4 5 100 per ceht > and production by 85 per doubled in the period covered by these componsonp, so that taking relative values prod uct ; on actUa]l ThZ\h» £f? fiP res clearly that the States have not confined their borrowing to making pr p vision f "*"££ tbrdoir^ •• Borrowine ) without pl-o-r^^r^rtc^t value by approximately £10 a bale, and every penny borrowed by the States for unproduchve works adversely affects the . rnf^ebtxr between ducti-