APPENDIX 257
burden of oversea debt per worker. This is here presented in graphi-
cal form, and it is notable that while productive efficiency between
1916 and 1927 has risen from 982 to 1,014, or by approximately
4 per cent., the felt burden has risen from 1,000 to 1,842, or by
84 per cent.
PropucTivE ErriciENcY ! AND INTEREST BURDEN
PER WORKER
Productive
Efficiency
Index.
18186 = 1.000
Interest on
Overseas
Debt.
£m.
Interest on
Overseas
Debt per
Worker.
£
Felt ® Bur.
den of
Interest
per
Worker.
Export
Price
Index.
Index of Felt
Burden per
Worker.
1816 = 1.000
Year.
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
'923
924
925
1926
1927
A.
1.000
962
935
915
t,029
1,039
1,029
974
1,089
1,042
1,084
1.032
B.
2780
10-792
13-520
14-012
7263
.8:233
20-490
20-792
23-205
23-748
254551
56-897 |
O..
11-2
12-2
15-0
14-9
18-2
187
21-0
20:9
22:8
23:0
24-2
Obed
D.
1,591
1,965
2,084
2,033
2,249
2,254
1,721
2,039
2,476
2,803
2,152
2 080
70
62
7.2
7.3
31
83
12:2
10-2
92
8-2
12-2
19.0
1,000
885
1,028
1,043
1,157
1,185
1,742
1,457
1,314
1,071
1,742
1.8492
The long-period trends of productivity and ‘felt’ burden of interest
per worker are not quite so grave as the relative changes thus stated
would appear to indicate; but at least there remains a discrepancy
which points to serious ineffectiveness in the application of borrowed
capital. Australian labour and oversea capital, co-operating in
Australian industries, bave failed to enlarge production with suffi-
sient rapidity to cover the rising burden of debt; and whilst each
worker has been able to increase his output by 4 per cent., his liabili-
bies even in 1927 represented an increase of over 80 per cent. Further,
a sustained decline in export price levels which is far from impossible,
or even improbable, in the years immediately ahead, tends to make
the felt burden heavier by diminishing the exchange value of the
commodities which we are able to apply to the satisfaction of the
debt.
Tt may be of interest to compute here the actual reduction in
1 Revised estimate of Australian Productive Efficiency as presented in 4.4.4.8.
Proceedings, vol. xviii, 1926, by Mr. C. H. Wickens.
? Column E = C+D.
2710
¥