COST LESS THAN IN 1914

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17227, 5 April 1930, Page 14

COST LESS THAN IN 1914

N.Z. DEFENCE FORCE Major Lampen, of Dunedin, who for several years served in the Indian Army and was associated with the New Zealand Defence Forces, commenting on the Government's apparent change in its defence policy, said : "Times are hard and money is tight and the Treasury is up against it. Every legitimate means of cutting down •expenditure is resorted to, and departments such as Defence are generally slaughtered at the altar of economy. If every department had lived within its means the economy axe would not have been wielded so drastically as is apparently suggested now. The Defence vote in 1914 was £550,0C0, and the estimate for the year 1928-30 was £'■191,667. It must be remembered that the cost of everything has gone up in proportion since 1914 and therefore last year's vote did not cover so mm h ground as the 1914 vote. Another point not generally known is that out of last year's totals the sum of £60,999 was applied to expenditure on military and civil aviation."