WAR EXPENSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 193, 17 July 1941, Page 8

WAR EXPENSES

PROVISION OF £69,700,000. LARGE SUM FROM LOANS. I Dealing with what he termed the • most important of tho budgets, the • War Expenses Account, the Alinister . of Finance, in presenting tho Finan- : cial Statement, said: i It will readily be. appreciated that I it is impossible to arrive at.estimates ' of expenditure with any degree of accuracy, as so majiv unpredictable fac- - tors are involved. The war expenditure which came to charge last financial i y r ear was in fact less than half the . amount estimated, the explanation of tho difference in this ease being the 1 considerable delay which lias lx-cn experienced in the receipt of claims from overseas. For tho current financial year provision requires to be made for a total of £09,700,000, including £5,000.000j repayment to the United Kingdom ' Government. This estimate is ar-, rived at as follows: — j Expenditure— £ I

To meet the foregoing and provide a relatively small margin for contingencies it is estimated that the following receipts will be available:— I

It would I>c unwise, of course, to give the same details of proposed War Expenses Account expenditure as is tho case with other State accounts, hut it may ho mentioned, in order to give some idea of the magnitude of our commitments, that the Army estimated expenditure of £SO 000 000 includes over £28,000,000 for stores and equipment and over £15,000,000 for pay and allowances. Of tho war expenditure, it is estimated that a total of £01.000,000 will be expended overseas, mainly on account of the armv, and allowance has been made for the financing of such expenditure by tho United Kingdom Government in terms of tho memorandum of security arrangement. At the same time the New Zealand Government,have repaid and will continue to repay such advances to tho full extent that our sterling funds will permit. DOMESTIC ALLOWANCE. !

Provision has been made in tho estimated expenditure for an additional measure of assistance to soldiers’ wives with dependent children. Such wives, owing to their domestic responsibilities, aro unable to take advantage of the present opportunities lor remunerative employment, and accordingly, as from the beginning of September next, it is proposed to pay a domestic allowance of Is a day to; soldiers’ wives with one or more dependent children. For a full year, this' will involve a charge of approximately £IOO,OOO. ' !

With a view to assisting the dependants of members of the armed forces, it has recently been decided that in all cases where members are reported “missing” or “dead” the allotment and allowances and assistance being received from the Soldiers’ Financial Assistance Board will be continued for three months after notification to the next-of-kin of the casualty. Thereafter tho ordinary war pension provisions operalo where the casualty has been, a result of war service. If it is dis-1 covered within the period of three. months that a member reported “missing” is a prisoner of war, tho allotments and allowances arc made continuous during the time that he remains a prisoner. In other cases, where tlio fate of a man reported “missing” remains unknown, the normal practice is for a war pension to be issued at the end of the three months, the pension replacing tho active servico payments. Should the discovery be made at a later date, following the issue of! a. war pension, that the member is a prisoner of war, the procedure iV for the allotments and allowances to | bo restored and necessary adjustments made to cover any difference betvvecn these amounts and the pension since the date on which the pension was issued. The dependants of prisoners of war, of course, receive full allotments | and allowances during the whole period of internment.

Allowance has been mado in the estimated receipts for the raising in New Zealand of war loans totalling £IO,OOO 000. A prospectus to raise this sum will be issued on August 1 for a 2 1 per cent, war loan maturing August 1,194 G, and a 3 per cent, war loan maturing August 1, 1954, tho Government having the right, nowover, to redeem the latter on giving three months’ notice, on or after August 1, 1951. To the extent that the whole of this amount is not required to meet commitments in New Zealand it will he used to meet overseas w r ar costs. To make way for these war Joans, the national developmentloan has now been withdrawn. | The National Savings Accounts and I Bonds continue to yield satisfactory! results and provision has been madcj for tho raising of an estimated sum, of at least £3 000 000 by this means. I I would urge all citizens to contribute to war loans, whether in tho form of tho special war loans interest-free I loans, or National Savings Accounts, or Bonds, as apart from the necessityi of obtaining funds to meet war costs.' a diversion of the spending power of the community to a furtherance oi the war effort is an essential measure for economic stability. i It is proposed to introduce this session a War Damage Bill providing compensation for loss of property which may lie destroyed by enemy action. ,

Navy 4,200,000 Army 50,000.000 Air 9,900,000 Debt repayment (United Kingdom Government) 5,600.000 69,700,000

Casli balance brought for* ward from 1940-41 4,428,000 transfer of 1940-11 Consolidated Fund surplus ... 1,726.000 Transfer from Consolidated Fund. 1941-42 1.500 000 Income tax 2,300,000 Estate, succession, and gift duty 3.04G,000 Customs, beer, sales tax and gold export duty 3,500 000 Postages .500 000 National security tax 10,000,000 Loans: United Kingdom ** Oovernment (memorandum of security) 31.000,000 Loans (New Zeaiand) 10,000,000 National Savings Accounts and Bonds 3,000,000 71.000.000