DOMINION FINANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17038, 20 December 1918, Page 4

DOMINION FINANCES.

The particulars of revenue and expenditure furnished by the Hon. A. M. Myers for the eight completed months of the current financial year exhibit the buoyancy which has been such- a marked feature of New Zealand war budgets. The financial resources of the Dominion have proved to be greater than any had anticipated, and the ease with which unprecedented taxation has been borne has surprised the most optimistic, There is a danger that the continuous increase in revenue will blind the community to- the still greater increase in expenditure which has accompanied it. The surplus of over five millions for the last financial year. cannot be considered apart from the growing war debt, nor can the accumulation. of a considerable sum to the credit of the Dominion in London bo considered apart from the concurrent increase in extraordinary liabilities. / However sound may be' the policy of. ■i^iM-'i'-: .v"■■■' :.;■■••; : ':-v.' M^^MrSMm

meeting the cost of tho war out of loan it cannot be pretended that annual surpluses shown under.such a system are more than a bookkeeping return. Tho cost of maintaining troops is still pressing heavily on the Dominion, and no substantial relief can be anticipated I during this financial year. After ; that it should be possible to reduce this expenditure considerably and to estimate the total cost of the war to New Zealand. Already the charges are known to total over £51,000,000, and while it is permissible to hope that the whole cost will bo recovered from Germany it would be imprudent to build on that assumption. For many years the financial policy of Now Zealand must be governed by rigid economy in non-essentials and boldness in developing the natural resources which arc capable of paying the war debt many times over.