AUSTRALIA’S LOAN POLICY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 14 October 1926, Page 7

AUSTRALIA’S LOAN POLICY.

Reply to Criticism. FEDERAL TREASURER’S DEFENCE. By Cabin —Press Association—CopyrlrM ' Australian nrid N.Z. Cable Association. SYDNEY, October 13. Dr. Earle Pago, referring, at Canberra, to the hostile criticism of Australian finances, contained in a pamphlet recently issued in London, said:

“We are not ashamed of tho large figures of the Commonwealth debt. Of the net debt of £339,000,000 at the end of the last financial year, approximately £3QQ,000,000 represented war debt. W« do not accept blame for placing upon tlio shoulders of the email population of 6,000,000 people this heavy burden, incurred on behalf of tlio whole Empire. Almost all the debt is redeemable in Australia, except the funded debt to the Imperial Government of £92,000,000, which carries terms of redemption and interest far more onerous than were imposed by the United States in respect of the British debt or by Britain in connection with the debts of France and Italy. The war debt ia subject to a statutory sinking fund, which will redeem the whole debt in 50 years, £28,000,000 having been redeemed in tliia manner in the last four years. Other Commonwealth debt is also subject to a definite sinking fund, which, like that on the war debt, is pay. ablo from the annual revenue. This debt amounts to £70,000,000, which was spent mainly on Post Office works, which were immediately revenue,producing, on the construction of the Federal Capital City, the revenue from which will pay the whole capital cost within a short period, and on other works which are creating valuable public assets, and will stimulate and assist the settlement of men and women of British stock in Australasia. Every loan raised by the Loan Council is subject to a oinking fund. The apparently excessive figures of the States’ debts must be examined in the light of the purposes for which the money wa« raised, and the special needs of circumstances of this undeveloped Continent. Nearly half the State public loans were floated in Australia, and more than twothirds were expended on railways, tramways, water supply, harbours, rivers and similar works.”

Regarding the general economic position of Australia, Dr. Earle Page quoted statistics showing that the publicly owned assets of the Australian Government and public bodies amounted to £725,000,000, and the private wealth amounted to £2,425,000,000, representing more than four times the publio debt and private foreign debts, which are estimated at £700,000,000.