AUSTRALIAN FINANCES.

Evening Star, Issue 22443, 14 September 1936, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN FINANCES.

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —Cables and your leader in tonight’s ‘ Star ’ would seem to indicate an improvement in the national prosperity' and well-being of our neighbours across the Tasman, but this is far from being the truth. At the recent Premiers’ Conference at Adelaide State Premiers pressed very hard that the Commonwealth should surrender certain fields of taxation, but Mr Lyons indicated that the Federal Covemment could not afford to vacate

any such fields. The State Premiers m reply have demanded greater financial assistance, and the conference terminated with grave dissatisfaction on all sides. In the mother State of New South Wales unemployment and starvation continue to bo a most serious problem. Mr Bruxner, Acting-Premier, admits the State spent £2,818,000 on emergency relief works m 1934-35, and £3,352,000 in 1935-36. This increased expenditure surely indicates that an increasing number ot workers are experiencing a lower standard of living. The Public Debt of the State of New South Wales in 1935 totalled £329,000,000 (an increase of £27,000,000 in the past three years). Total interest and charges in 1935 were £12,213,981; total taxation, 1935, £12,086,106. State Premiers nave reason to urge on the Commonwealth the urgent need for further financial help. Meanwhile a balanced Budget is engaging the attention ot Mr Spooner, New South Wales acting-treasurer, and he insists that expenditure must be further, cut to the bone. The financial drift is indicated by Government accounts for the first month of the financial year, which show a deficit of £282,421, compared with £63,590 in Jujy of 1935. All departments must insist on still greater economy, says Mr Spooner, and it is proposed to utilise for Budget balancing purposes some £1,700,000 of moneys collected from taxpayers for unemployment relief; Last month there were 300,000 men on the dole in New South Wales, and with further State economies it seems certain that the number must increase. In the other States the people experience similar conditions to a greater or less degree, and prosperity seems a strange term to express such conditions as exist in many parts of the Commonwealth to-day. True, Australians perish through no failure of their ability to produce “ their daily bread,” bat through an artificial famine originating in their money or financial ticket system, which, like our own and those of most nations of the world, require modernisation or remodelling as an urgent necessity. The daily bread must be financed into consumption. National dividends will do it.—l am, etc., September 11. C.E.M.