BALANCED BY INFLATION

Chronicle (Levin), 10 June 1949, Page 5

BALANCED BY INFLATION

Mr. Holland Attacks Public Accounts i. WELLINGTON, June 10.. . "The Budget is 'on.y ba.aneed because Mr. Nasii pumped an aacutional £20,000,000 Ql pnnied monty. Into the Consoiidaced Fund; whicn is without pxecedent in New Zea- • land's financial system|' said the Leader oi the OpposiuoiLvMr. S. G. Hoiland, today.. "Tnis. waheiing' oi; the currency , will pusfi the cost of living still higher." " ' v Mr. Holland said. -that when the Opposition deelared that Mr. Nash was underestimatiiig 'his taxation . income, .it was inva'nably toid tha» it did not know what it was taiking about. ' The figures just released, said Mr. Holland, showed that income taxhad exceeded the estimates by' nearly £8,000,000 for the last financial year. Mr. Holland reiterated his previous criticism that "the presentation of the Publie Accounts was desig'ned in sueh a %manner as to ; conceal rather than reveal the true position. "There is one importanv item of £20,000,000 on the receipts side of the accounts which represents neither borrowings from the people or taxation on the people, where did it come from? It is sanply printed money created by the Reserve Bank on the Minister's instructions without relation to the production of any goods whatsoever. "That is unadulterated infiation —money without goods— the very thing that is forcin^ up the co^t of the people's living. We already have more money today than we can spend on goods and services, yet this process of screwmg up ,th^ printing press still goes on. , ' "We will never get rid of the crueily mounting costs of living until we get rid of the causes^ — printing money without producing goods —and we won't get rid of the causes until we get rid of the people who wind up the printing press." Mr. Holland said that Mr. Nash • had forecast a reduction in revenue on accounts of a reduction in cextain income taxation charges of £3,250,000. However, Mr. Nash had collected a record sum, just over £49,000,000, which was more than £7,000,000 above his estimate and over £12,000,000 above the amount collected in 1947-48. ^