The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28. 1931. SPENDING AND SAVING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 256, 28 October 1931, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28. 1931. SPENDING AND SAVING.

Gloucester Street and Cathedral Square CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND. London Representatives g R. B. BRETT & SON «EW BRIDGE HOUSE. 30/34 NEW BRIDGE STREET LONDON. E.C A.

/’■'VNE-TH'IRD of the total receipts • of the Dominion from taxation is expended on social services, the Minister of Education assures us, and the figures are worth studying. Education alone is well over the four million mark, and that fact in itself should make bodies like the Workers’ Educational Association very diffident about asking for special favours in these days of stern economy. Even in normal times, -as the Minister says, the position would demand investigation, and just now, when the limit of taxation has been reached in all directions, it is only by Departmental economies that the position can be further improved. Just how bad the position is may be judged from Mr Downie Stewart’s declaration in the- Supplementary Budget that a reduction in pensions might at any time become an imperative necessity if world price levels remained low, and it is obvious that before pensions can be shortened there must be a drastic reduction in the education vote, and in the cost of such services as dental hygiene and even child welfare. Many of these services, which were started in prosperous times, have grown out of all reason, and this is certainly not the time to attempt to deflect the Government from a course of the strictest economy. THE RACING STIMULUS. 'M'E'W ZEALANDERS will not x ~ have their interest in the famous Melbourne Cup diminished very much this year by the fact of a smaller field than usual, for the four top-weight horses are New Zealand bred, and there is quite a possibility that the history of the past two years will be repeated in the placing of Dominion-bred horses in the first and second places. The slump in racing in New Zealand, indeed, has created a new interest in the performance of New Zealand horses in Australia. Ammon Ra appears to be a certainty for the Victorian Derby, and even if Concentrate is not likely to seriously challenge that phenomenal horse, Phar Lap, he is such a proved stayer that he is sure to finish creditably. It is probable that extra facilities for speculation are attracting New Zealand owners to Australia, and this is regrettable in so far as it deprives the New Zealand public of the attractions of some of the Dominion’s best representatives. However, it is only one effect of the mistaken policy of overtaxing a popular sport. A BRITISH QUALITY. "VATHENEVER Britain has been ” ’ in trouble her people have come forward to help her in a rare spirit of sacrifice and independence, and this spirit, we were told in cablegrams yesterday, has been crystallised in spontaneous gifts to the nation of gold coins, ornaments, jewellery and even Government stock. The situation recalls the early years of the war, when the Government, requiring gold for export to America in payment for munitions, and having none itself, appealed to the people to give up the gold-using habit, hand in the millions of sovereigns in circulation in the country, and accept, instead, notes which had nothing behind them but the mere promise of the Government to repay at some uncertain date in the future. The resul! Was an Unparalleled exhibition of patriotism by which, in a very short time, a hundred millions in gold was handed in for the use of the Government. But the givers of this generation have gone even further, and have evidently presented their gifts, as a graceful gesture in time of need, without the suggestion of repayment.