ill be interested to know what the actual cost of
the war will have been to this country as far as we can estimate on
March 31, the close of the financial year. The war will then have lasted
for 240 days and the votes of credit up to that time, assuming this vote
is carried, will amount to L362,000,000. It may be said, speaking
generally, that the average expenditure from votes of credit will have
been, roughly, L1,500,000 per day throughout the time. That, of course,
is the excess due to the war over the expenditure on a peace footing.
That represents the immediate charge to the taxpayers of this country
for this year. But, as the committee knows, a portion of the expenditure
consists of advances for the purpose of assisting or securing the food
supplies of this country and will be recoverable in whole, or to a very
large extent, in the near future. A further portion represents advances
to the dominions and to other States which will be ultimately repaid. If
these items are excluded from the account the average expenditure per
day of the war is slightly lower, but after making full allowance for
all the items which are in the nature of recoverable loans, the daily
expenditure does not work out at less than L1,200,000.

These figures are averages taken over the whole period from the outbreak
of the war, but at the outbreak of the war, after the initial
expenditure on mobilization had been incurred, the daily expenditure was
considerably below the average, as many charges had not yet matured. The
expenditure has risen steadily and is now well over the daily average
that I have given. To that figure must be added, in order to give a
complete account of the matter, something for war services other than
naval or military. At the beginning of the year these charges are not
likely to be very considerable, but it will probably be within the mark
to say that from April I we shall be spending over L1,700,000 a day
above the normal, in consequence of the war.

Perhaps now I may say something which is not strictly in order on this
vote, but concerns the vote of credit for the ensuing year, which
amounts, as appears on the paper, to L250,000,000. The committee will at
once observe an obvious distinction between the votes of credit taken
for the current financial year and that which we propose to take for the
ensuing year. As I have already pointed out, at the outbreak of war the
ordinary supply of the year had been granted by the H