DOMINION'S FINANCES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 5, 10 September 1943, Page 5

DOMINION'S FINANCES

RATING AS A BAROMETER

MR PARRY AT EDGECUMBE

"Some public men are wont to> use the Post Office Savings Banks' deposits., and others, the totalisator returns-, of the. Dominion, as' barometers to guage the financial position of the country," .stated the? Minister of Internal Affairs, M.r Parry, in a speech at Edgecumbe on. Tuesday night. He would adopt an. unusual course,, he added, of showing the sound financial position of New Zealand by quoting the rate returns of local bodies.—county avnl borough councils and independent town boards. All had collected a record of rates, in some instances OS) per cent, of rates, for much of the period, of the present Government s administration. Besides having been, able to pay their lull rates when they fell due, the people had found it possible to wipe off considerable arrears that had accumulated in*

the time of past Governments

The Minister s;ticl that in 193.) arrears of rates outstanding in counties mounted to £73.>,7.)7. 1 o-day tlxc arrears had been reduced to £21)9.47(5, the percentage ol redue-. tion being 71.6. The -arrears 'irk boroughs in 1935 amounted to £931,5(55, and. to-day they stood at £343,,S3B, being a reduction of (51.3 per cent. In independent town districts the same excellent result had bccn_ achieved. The figure in 1935 Y\ev e---£,")1.203, and to-day they nmounted*, to £11.39(5, a reduction ol' 71.9 per cent. '\1 unhesitatingly say.'' Mr Parry* added, "that in the position with* regard to rates, mortgages, etc., Ihave quoted, there is no better barometer revealed than these 1 haves given to illustrate how, under the* present Government, fanners havebeen financially able to discharge* their obligations."