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2 18 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
that has been noticed appears to be that the revenue
of both Cape Colony and Natal has suffered greatly
during the war, as might have been expected. The
receipts from import duties have diminished greatly,
and the net income from the railways, as far as the
general public is concerned, has also diminished, al-
though it remains to be seen whether in the end, when
an account is stated, the sums due from the Imperial
Government for the use of -the railways for war pur-
poses will not more than make good the loss of income
to the Colonial Governments from the general use of
the railways being diminished.
We come last of all then to the finance of the Im-
perial Government, as to which one or two questions
have arisen, although not of first-rate importance. The
war is estimated to cost the Government, as we have
seen, rather more than £60,000,000 sterling, this being
the addition to the Army and Navy Estimates for the
past and the current financial years in excess of charges
for the ordinary establishments of army and navy, in-
cluding some charges which have been incurred in
consequence of defects in our equipment which the
war has revealed, but the filling up of which is not put
down as a war charge. Of this amount it has been
arranged to borrow £30,000,000; while the remainder,
with the exception of £ 14,000,000 of additional taxa-
tion, has been made good by means of suspending the
sinking fund, providing a sum of about £10,000.000
altogether for the two years, and by means of the
enormous increase of revenue in excess of budget
estimates which has taken place during the last two
years. The marvellous ease with which the cost of the
war has been borne is thus very striking. More than
half the cost is being met out of current revenue, but
not half of that half has to be supplied by new
taxation.
With regard to the borrowing itself there was much
discussion by anticipation as to the best method of
borrowing; whether more Consols should be issued, or