Since the war, during which Australia borrowed £350,000,000, including £103,000,000 overseas, the national debt has nearly doubled. In 1902 the total debt was £221,000,000; last year it was £1,263,000,000.
After allowing for redemptions, the overseas'debt has increased since 1902 by £407,000,000.
The total internal debt on June 30, 1937, was £674,509,661. On December 31, 1936, bondholders who have invested in the internal debt comprised: public generally, £275,710000; Commonwealth Bank, £27,470,00; trading banks, £20,260,000; Savings Banks, £126,650,000; insurance companies, £61,980,000; trustee companies, £38,- 320,000; superannuation funds, £15,- 020,000; Government trust funds, £20,260,000; other bodies, £1,400,000; unclassified holdings, 225,090,000.
In the year ended June 30, interest paid on internal holdings was £24,- 610,000. The amount of internal loans exempt from Federal and State taxation on that date was £43,517,000.
Since 1929, Australia has financed herself without going upon the London market. Last month the Government, amidst considerable public objection, borrowed £7,000,000 in London, but £5,000,000 was for funding short term Treasury bills held in London.
Tranquil Life Impresses The high degree of Australia's sociological progress, and the easy machinery by which it has been obtained has impressed Prof. Edward Alsworth Ross, the American sociologist, who is on a visit here.
"Every day," Prof. Ross said, "some fresh note of the development of your cities, your standards of living or of your tranquil prosperity is borne in upon me, and I find it difficult to believe that it has all been achieved in only 100 years."
He was greatly impressed by the fine quality of Australians and the basis which existed for the intimacy between them and Americans. There was a definite cosmopolitan possibility in Australians, of whom so many had a wide outlook.
Referring to the Commonwealth and State courts of arbitration and conciliation and their awards, and the wages board system, he said the United States had nothing comparable, and that it was only beginning to touch the edge of the old age pension scheme on a national scale.
Postage, Telegrams and Telephones The Postmaster-General's Department showed a surplus of £3,340,930 in 1937, an increase of £357,000 on the previous year's surplus.
Surpluses in each of the main
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.