THE PUBLIC DEBT

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 115, 11 April 1930, Page 7

THE PUBLIC DEBT

ITS GROWTH. FROM 1914 TO 1929. (Taxpayers’ Federation.) Tho magnitude of the public debt is sufficient in itself to keep the people of the Dominion thinking very seriously of their obligations. There is, however, no need to suggest, as some pessimists are doing that these obligations are seriously impairing the credit ot the country and prejudicing its standing in the world of finance. Some of the critics, telling one half o! the story, never weary of reiterating the fact that on March 31, 1914 tho gross debt of the Dominion stood at £99,730,427 (including £4,976,G00 raised.in March of that year for redemption purposes early in the succeeding financial year), .and the further fact that on. March 31, 1929 stood at £264,191,983 (including £5,379,105 raised in January 1929 for expenditure in 1929-30.) Curiously enough these two financial years, 1914 and 1930, are the only years in which loans have been held over in this fashion and it is desirable their significance should be kept in mind. In 1914 the volume of the public debt £94,753,827, represented tlie following accumulated expenditure: Directly reproductive undertakings (railways, telegraphs, and so forth), £31,856,074; investments (advances to settlers, workers. local bodies) £30,352,131; indirectly productive (roads, bridges, immigration) £11,494,204; and unproductive (public buildings, Maori war, defence) £21,051 ; 418. The expenditure under these headings, per cent, is expressed in the following figures: Reproductive expenditure 33.62 per cent. Investments 32.03 „ ~ Indirectly productive 12.13 „ „ Unproductive 22.22 „ „ 100.0 On March 31, 1929, the gross public debt was shown under somewhat difficult titles, by the following figures: Productive works £77,466,438; land settlement and forests £24,338,729; investments £39,333,747; indirectly productive purposes, £25,005,501; and financially unproductive purposes, £92,668,736. The expenditure under these headings is classified as follow: Productive works 29.93 per cent. Land settlement and forests 9.40 „ „ Investments 15.20 „ „ Indirectly productive purposes 9.66 ~ „ Financially unproductive ... 35.81 „ ~ 100.0

Of the unproductive expenditure of £92,668,736 no less than £70,881,270 is a heritage from the Great War. .But for this enormous drain upon the resources of the Dominion, the amount of unproductive debt in 1929 would have been less than 12 per cent, or. m proportion, little more than one. half of the unproductive debt of 1914. New Zealand is not grudging the millions it contributed towards the conduct of tho war; but it naturally resents tho reiterated assertion that well on to one half of its borrowed money has been employed unprofitably. It has been admitted, however, that in other directions the growth ot public expenditure within the Dominion lias proceeded with disquieting rapidity. In 1914 thri gross public debt, including the £4,976,600 tor-: redemp-. tion purposes, already: mentioned, reached £99,730,427; in 1918,- £150,840,055; in 1922 £219,064,386; in- 1926 £238,856,478, and in 1929, including again, the amount of £6,379,105 anticipated for the succeeding year, £264,191,983. During the fifteen years that have elapsed since the beginning of the war the national debt has increased from £B7 lOs 2d per bead of population to £179 12s lOd per head, and the taxation from £5 os 2d per head to £l2 4s 3d per head. In 1920 taxation stood at £l3 11s Id per head; in 1921 at £l7 14s 4d, and in 1922 at £l2 14s Bd, but since this last reduction, brought about largely by a representative deputation taken to Mr Massey by the Taxpayers’ Federation, little progress has been made towards lightening the people’s burdens. > It has been suggested that a thorough overhaul of the .administrative branches of the governing machine might revive many opportunities of averting waste and extravagance. A Wanganui business man writing to the newspapers the "other 'day expressed in a nutshell what is being said by the business men'in this respect. '“The alarming part of the position,” he declared, “is the great increase in cost of administration, and until the brake is put on the administrative officers by the Government, matters will go from bad to worse. . Ono reads in the Press of economy being forced on other countries. In New Zealand we read of increased expenditure. How long can it go on P This is a question tor the politicians to answer. The fact 3 are plain enough. In 1915 the number of permanent and temporary hands employed by the Government was 41,217. In 1915 the number had swollen to 55,918. During the ten years the wages bill had swollen from £5,867,308 to £13,261,838. The increase p‘- r cent in tho staffs between the two periods was 35.66 per cent and the increase in salaries 126.36 per cent. Unfortunately theso figures are taken only every tenth year and the taxpayer will have to wait another half dozen for the next return. . Meanwhile a few examples of tlie increases in staff and salaries between 1914 and 1929 cannot fail to be of general interest: — 1914. 1929. Department. Staff. Sals. Staff. Sals. £ £ Tetegraoh ... 5375 705,627 8787 1,650,537 Income tax ... 74 14,815 170 £9,823 Mental hospitals 614 63,991 1259 928,938 Public Health . 130 11,326 524 1£1,941 Agriculture ... 406 87,978 628 202,899 Education 475 62,517 720 182,262 Forestry 18 3,811 146 43,388 Public Trust ... 191 33,374 684 188,630

These figures do not include temporal. y employees. A bare recital of the increased annual expenditure in tho principal legislative departments between 1925 and 1929 must conclude this somewhat discursive review:—Legislative Department, £121,000; Stamp Duties Department, £69,000; Native Department, £9000; Cook Islands Department, £67,000- Prisons Department, £29,000 , Police Department £8b,000; tensions Department, *?" t-rnal Affairs Department, £264,000; I’ulilic Health Department, £B4,OUU, Defence and Naval Department, £ 1 202.000 ; Labour Department, £40,000; Education Department, ■ £841,000; Prime Minister’s Department, £28.000 ; Mental Hospitals- Depart went, £148,000; Total.. £3,748,000. The increased expenditure in all _ departments between 1914 and 192. amounted to £l2 6s 6d per head of the total population.