NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 94, 15 January 1919, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

With nine months of the financial year gone the returns of receiptsand expenditure under the Consolidated iund begin to assume a special interest. The figures supplied to-day by the Acting-Minister of Finance, the Hon. Mr. Myers, sbow an increased revenue for the three quarters of the current year of over £1,500,000, but the expenditure has gone up by over. £2,800,000. The most striking feature of the returns is tbo enormous jump made in the permanent charges of nearly three million pounds. Interest and sinking' fund account for over two millions of this sum, and war pensions, no doubt, for tho greater part pf;the It has to be borne « mind that this expenditure is beyond the power of the Government to control—it is one of the war's legacies—and for some time to come may be expected to increase rather than to diminish. The country will have to carry this burden for a long time to come, and the only way to lighten the strain is by increased production. Comparing the financial position this year with the corresponding position at the same time la;?-year, it will be seen that in round figures the balance of receipts and expenditure 'has shifted over a million and a quarter to the bad. This was to be expected. The increase of unavoidable expenditure is responsible. The actual position may be easily seen from the following table:— ~ 9 mouthy 9 months, 1917. 1918. •£ .£ Revenue 10,543,503 12,099,774 Expenditure .. 10,328,341 13,166,171

220,162 1,066,397 (surplus) (deficit) The best quarter from the revenue point of view, however, has yet to come. The income tax payments fall due in the last quarter of the year. Last year they totalled over £5,300,000, and thisycar there is not likely to be any falling away. The total revenue for the last three months of 1917-18 was £9,628,628 and the expenditure £4,791,947, leaving a balance of £4,836,681, which, added to the £220,162, brought the surplus for the year to over five millions. It will be seen, therefore, that though we enter on the last quarter with a debit balance of something like a million and a quarter another substantial surplus at the end of the financial year is assured. It will not reach the five_ million mark, but in spite_ of the increased expenditure it is fairly safe to anticipate that the Finance Minister.will be able to announce a balance to credit of between two and three millions.

The people of. Hawcra seem to have a conquering way with them when it is a matter of bringing the Minister of Education into line. It is not clear at the moment whether the Minister heard beforehand about the indignation meeting convened in the Taranaki town to protest against the delay in providing it with a Technical High School and attempted to. avert trouble by hastily telegraphing the offer of a grant. At all events the offer was telegraphed, and the school is to be erected within twelve months. Similar action, taken years ago, in Wellington might have led to an equally happy result, for our needs in the matter of Technical School accommodation are certainly as great as those of Hawcra. Even now the Taranaki incident is of some value as an example. Wellington is promised a Technical School,,and a site has been allotted, but there may still lie useful scop'e for agitation with a view to ensuring that tho building shall be at least well advanced before twelve months are over.

It is easy enough to understand the opposition offered by the French Government to the proposal of the British Government that all factions in Russia should be invited to suspend hostilities, and, agreeing, should be granted representation at the Peace Conference., In France this is interpreted, not unreasonably, as meaning that tho Bolsheviki are to bo offered representation. The idea of the British Government may have been that in any orderly and peaceful selection of Russian delegates the Bolsheviki would be excluded, since their present domination over parts of Russia is based upon a system and methods of terrorism—perhaps the worst of their kind the world has yet witnessed. It is only too plain, however, that prospects of an orderly selection of delegates in Russia are. anything but bright. The Bolsheviki certainly cannot be regarded as in any sense representing Russia. Apart from the wholesale crimes of violence and Outrage of which these terrorists have'been guilty, evidence has been published by the American Committee of Public Information which clearly convicts a number of their prominent leaders, including Lenin and Trotsky, of being traitors in German pay. Documents made public by the Committee in October last demonstrate that Lenin, Trotsky and others were in intimate touch with the German General Staff in the early months of 1918, and were receiving its directions.