foreign exchange or currency.

Some of the methods for obtaining increased production from industry by
better conditions of labour leading to more effective efforts have been
discussed in another chapter; the question of obtaining increased output
from the land so as to produce a larger amount of food for home
consumption will be mentioned in a subsequent chapter dealing with
reconstruction or reform relating to agriculture. Improved forestry may
be regarded as a branch of the same subject.

With regard to expenditure, it will be incumbent on all classes to act
rigorously so as to prevent waste, but it is not to be expected that the
national expenditure as a whole can be greatly reduced as compared with
the pre-War standard. The expenditure of certain classes of people
might, of course, be greatly reduced without any injury to healthy life
or development or in any way impairing real efficiency or even affecting
their happiness; but as regards the majority this is not so. The
conditions of life of the working classes, especially as regards such
matters as housing, require to be improved. It is a wiser expenditure,
not a reduction in expenditure, that must be the aim for them. The
expenditure on drink is, of course, unnecessarily large, and in many
cases absolutely detrimental, and a reduction in this respect is
required for national well-being. The manner of dealing with the
question must be the subject of separate consideration; but it is a
remarkable fact that, though no evil has been more prominent, though for
more than half a century no subject has provoked more discussion, though
none has been the object of more organised attempts at reform, in none
has so little of value been done by State action or legislation, at
least until the establishment of the Board of Control during the War.