§ 3. THE INCREASE OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE--During the Boer War and since its close there has been an unparalleled growth both in national and municipal expenditure. For every £5 that was required by public departments in 1895 £8 is now expended. The addition to the National Debt, and consequently to the debt charges, has been already noticed, and the following table shows the general figures for the opening and close of the period under review:-- _Expenditure_ _Estimated Expenditure_ 1897–98 1910–11 Army £19,330,000 £27,760,000 Navy 20,850,000 40,604,000 Civil Service 23,446,000 42,686,000 National Debt and other services 25,000,000 36,945,000 Post Office, Customs and Inland Revenue 14,310,000 23,852,000 ______________________________________ Total £102,936,000 £171,847,000 ______________________________________ These totals represent an expenditure per head of the total population of £2, 11_s._ in 1897–98 and of £3, 16_s._ in 1910–11. We must remember, however, that the expenses of the Post Office are more than covered by the revenue derived from that institution, and that much of the addition to the Civil Service estimates is due to Old Age Pensions and to the increased provision for education. “The Civil Service charge has risen as the natural result of multiplied and enlarged activities, and advance has been specially heavy in the last two decades, but the Civil Service includes education, poor law, the improvement of roads and health, and many other services which conduce to national well-being. It stands on a very different economic level from armaments, which represent {227} the workings of international discord and jealousy.”[64] Yet there is no doubt that in all departments the public money is being expended more freely and extravagantly than was the case some twenty-five years ago. The portentous increase in naval expenditure must be ascribed partly to the Boer War, but chiefly to our recent rivalry in naval construction with Germany, and our adoption of the _Dreadnought_ type of battleship. Army expenditure increased between 1897 and 1899 through a series of “little wars” in Egypt and India, and since the South African War we have been practically maintaining a war establishment in time of peace.