8.—6.

To meet the foregoing and provide a relatively small margin for contingencies it is estimated that the following receipts will be available : — £ Cash balance brought forward from 1940-41 .. 4,428,000 Transfer of 1940 41 Consolidated Fund surplus . . 1,726,000 Transfer from Consolidated Fund, 1941-42 . . 1,500,000 Income-tax .. .. .. .. .. 2,300,000 Estate, succession, and gift duty .. . . 3,046,000 Customs, beer, sales tax, and gold-export duty . . 3,500,000 Postages .. .. .. .. .. 500,000 National security tax .. .. .. . . 10,000,000 Loans : United Kingdom Government (Memorandum of Security) .. .. .. ..31,000,000 Loans (New Zealand) .. .. .. .. 10,000,000 National Savings Accounts and Bonds .. .. 3,000,000 £71,000,000 It would be unwise of course, to give the same details of proposed War Expenses Account expenditure as is the case with other State accounts, but it may be mentioned, in order to give some idea of the magnitude of our commitments, that the Army estimated expenditure of £50,000,000 includes over £28,000,000 for stores and equipment and over £15,000,000 for pay and allowances. Of the war expenditure, it is estimated that a total of £31,000,000 will be expended overseas, mainly on account of the army, and allowance has been made for the financing of such expenditure by. the United Kingdom Government in terms of the memorandum of security arrangement. At the same time the New Zealand. Government have repaid and will continue to repay such advances to the full extent that our sterling funds will permit. Provision has been made in the estimated expenditure for an additional measure of assistance to soldiers' wives with dependent children. Such wives, owing to their domestic responsibilities, are unable to take advantage of the present opportunities for remunerative employment, and accordingly, as from the beginning of September next, it is proposed to pay a domestic allowance of Is. a day to soldiers' wives with one or more dependent children. For a full year, this will involve a charge of approximately £.100,000. With a view to assisting the dependants of members of the armed forces, it has recently been decided that in all cases where members are reported " missing " or " dead " the allotment and allowances and assistance being received from the Soldiers' Financial Assistance Board will be continued for three months after notification to the next-of-kin of the casualty. Thereafter the ordinary war-pension provisions operate where the casualty has been a result of war service. If it is discovered within the period of three months that a member reported " missing " is a prisoner of war, the allotments and allowances are made continuous during the time that he remains a prisoner. In other cases, where the fate of a man reported " missing" remains unknown, the normal practice is for a war pension to be issued at the end of the three months, the pension replacing the active-service payments. Should the discovery be made at a later date, following the issue of a war pension, that the member is a prisoner of war, the procedure is for the allotments and allowances to be restored and necessary adjustments made to cover any difference between these amounts and the pension since the date on which the pension was issued. The dependants of prisoners of war, of course, receive full allotments and allowances during the whole period of internment. Allowance has been made in the estimated receipts for the raising in New Zealand of war loans totalling £10,000,000. A. prospectus to raise this sum will be issued on Ist August for a 2\ per cent, war loan maturing Ist August, 1946, and a 3 per cent, war loan maturing Ist August, 1954, the Government

Domestic allowances for soldiers' wives.

Allowances and allotments to dependants of members of the armed forces reported " missing " or "dead."

War loans.

3—B. 6.

9