A NEW ERA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17078, 29 January 1916, Page 9

A NEW ERA.

CANADA'S FINE EXAMPLE. NEW ZEALAND PUT TO SHAME. ("Otago Daily Times.") In the days to come it will, we fear, unless the thing be speedily righted, be regardbd as. a distinct reproach to this Dominion that she did not participate in what the financial editor of "The Times" rightfully regards as a new era in Imperial finance. It is to the credit of the Dominion of Canada that, taking advantage of an exceedingly favourable balance of trade in her favour, induced! no less by a bountiful harvest than by rigid economies in expenditure, she has arranged that one-half of the first internal loan raised for war purposes shall be placed to the credit of the Imperial Exchequer. It may be argued that the £10,000,000 thus placed at the disposal of the Ho ne Government is but a drop in the bucket, representing barely two days' war expenditure; but its significance must not be overlooked on that account, since it heralds the inauguration of a new system of war finance. It may be news to many people that reliable statisticians estimate the income of that part of the Empire lying outside of the United Kingdom as equal to the income of the United Kingdom itself; yet virtually unaided the taxpayers and consumers of the United Kingdom have up to the present been bearing the tremendous burden not only of financing the enormous expenditure involved in maintaining the British Navy and a hugely increased British Army, but also of financing our Allies to the tune of £400,000.000 a year. All honour to Canada that she has been the first to »>erceive the a.nomaly of the situation, nnd that she has given the first fruits of her perception in that £10,000,000. In comparison the attitude of New Zealand must be written down as disappointing and as meriting the strictures meted' out by a correspondent under the telling title, "National Shirking." This Dominion, which has probably benefited from tho war as much as, if not more than, any other i)art of the Empire, and whose people iave not in any sense felt the strain of hard times, lies under the reproach of actuallv adding to the financial burdens of* the Homeland by receiving assistance from the Imperial Government, which, if existing arrangements are adhered to, will amount to over £8,000,000. That is to say, New Zealand is actually negativing the assistance which the Canadians, by the exercise of economy and thrift, are tendering to the people at Homo. The case is all the more arresting when the financial task confronting the British Empire is carefully considered and examined. ... The people of this Dominion would not hesitate to endorse the reversal of a policy which, if persevered in. may readily bring New Zealand' into disrepute. There should be little difficulty in raising an internal loan which should provide for a substantial proportion of our own war expenditure and thus lighten the exceedingly heavy financial burden which has been imposed upon the people of the Homeland. Hnw pressing that burden is becominc is seen in the latest determination of the British Government to control ths importation of luxuries,

with a view, at one and' the same time, of relieving the dearth of shipping and the adverse balance in tho foreign exchange and of checking all extravagant expenditure. The people of New Zealand have vet to learn the value of sacrifice in so far as the supply of their material wants is concernod, and tic Government has yet to show them the way. Along the path of sacrifice for the whole Empire lies the path of victory, and by no other road can it be attained* or achieved.