AUSTRALIAN DEBT

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 10489, 14 October 1926, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN DEBT

FEDERAL TREASURER ANSWERS CRITICISM.

LOANS SUBJECT TO SINKING < FUND.

ALL STATE PROPOSALS EXAMINED BY LOAN COUNCIL.

(United Press Assn.—Copyright.! SYDNEY, Oct. 13. Dr. Earle Page, referring at Canberra to the hostile criticism of Australian finances contained in a pamphlet recently issued in London, said: “We are not ashamed of the large figures of the Commonwealth debt. Of the net debt of £339,000.000 at the end of the last financial year, approximately £300,000,000 represented the war debt. We do not accept the blame for placing upon the shoulders, of a small population of 6,000,000 people this heavy burden incurred on behalf of the whole Empire. Almost all the 'debt is redeemable in Australia, except the funded debt to the Imperial Government of £92,000,000, which carries terms of redemption and interest far more onerous than were imposed by the United States in respect to the. British debt, or by Britain in connection with the debts of France and Italy. The war debt i» subject to a statutory sinking fund which will redeem the whole debt in 50 years, £28,000,000 having been redeemed in this manner in the last four years. “Tiie Commonwealth debt is also subject to a definite sinking fund, which like that on the watr debt,. i» payable from annual revenue. This debt amounts to £70,000,000, which was spent mainly on post office works, which were immediately revenue producing, on the construction of the Federal capital city, revenue from which will pay the whole capital within a short ceriod. and on other works which are creating valuable public assets, and will stimulate and assist the settlement of men and women of British stock in- Australia.

“Every loan raised by the Loan Council is subject to a sinking fund. The- apparently excessive figures of the State debts must be- examined in the light of the purpose for which the money was raised, and the special needs and “circumstances of this undeveloped continent. Nearly half the State public loans were floated in Australia, and more than two-thirds were expended on railways, water supply, harbors, rivers, and similar works.”

Regarding the general economic position of Australia, Dr. Page quoted statistics showing that the publiclyowned assets of the Australian Government and public bodies amounted' to £725,000,000 and private wealth amounted to £2,425.000,000, representing more than four times the public debt and private foreign debts, which arc estimated at £700,000.000. —U.P.A.