FORGED BY PEOPLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 65, 14 October 1930, Page 5

FORGED BY PEOPLE.

INCREASED EXPENDITURE The rise in the expenditure of the Government and Qf local authorities in recent years is one of the prin> cipal causes of the decline in our national prosperity. Because of the burden placed by taxation and rates on our industries, it is becoming more and more difficult for us to sell our goods in competition with less extravagant and more industrious peoples, 'said Mr. Seabury Burdett-Coutts, ,'aidd res sing ratepayers at Wadhurst, Sussex, reports the 'Daily Mail'.

For a time we may be able to continue the present system, thanks to the vast accumulation of our Victorian ancestors, but the day is approaching when those savings will bo exhausted- When that day comes—and come it will within the next decade unless a halt is called to public extravagance—then all classes of the population will either have to accept a much lower standard df living or starve. The estimated expend : ture of the Sussex County Council in 1930-31 for all services exceeds the expenditure on similar services in the standard year 1928-29 by the prodgious figure of £135,000, equivalent to a rate of about Is 5d in the £. The County Council is not wholly responsible for this increase. Successive /Governments, and the present Government in particular, have florced expenditure on local authorities by making grants dependent on the quality of the services provided-