WAR TIME PROFITS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14590, 27 April 1918, Page 5

WAR TIME PROFITS.

I "It is hardly Tecognised ho^ greatly the incomes' of the Australian' people have increased since the first year of, the war (says the Sydney Daily Tele- 1 ! gfaphi). Good seasons- high prices, and the vastly : increased expenditure of the Commonwealtfh ' Government itself on the i war have all swollen them to an unprecedented extent. Largely the people's I income's depend 'upon- the-' country's production, ' which, according {p. the Corivmonwealth.' gtatisiicrani : was' -fiabajSOOjOOO 1 m 1914, and -£251,600,000 m 19l&,and there is abundant evidence that' in"1916 and .1917; it was materially grea,ter. The purchases of the Imperial Government. [m the past two years' have been enorimous. Then, if the Commonwealth Government this financial year expends some- $80,000,000 on, the. war, ' quite £50,000,000 falls to the people m, Australia,, and it is only to a minor extent .represented by, production... Outside production, too, there . are . the incomes : of ,1110 .mercantile,/ and professional classes, as well as the Government services, and ifc is fairly evident that they .haye v ex•panded similarly. It. is for such reasons ,that loan .subscriptions, which a :few j years back appeared impossible, aro'i not rso, while the ..high prices and inflated Government expenditures continue. When it hey are curtailed thei*e will ,come. a period of adjustment ;; but t|ie borrowing pressure will . thpn hftyo been curtailed likewise,". ':, .--, . • ,■