Financial Statement Debate

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 71, 3 December 1887, Page 3

Financial Statement Debate

MR MACARTHUR'S SPEECH. (Continued.) Before coin? through the fignres I will describe what the honourable gentleman's aperation is. We will suppose a business is heing carried on at an annual expendi* ture ot £200,000 a year. Of that £200.--000. £80,000 is spent during the first half of the year, and the balance during the second half. At the end of the first six months the head of the firm dismisses the manager who has spent the full £80.000, and takes on a new manager, who in the next, six months in ordinary course spends £120,000. The old manager states his case thus ; "If you had left me in oftice I should have done your work for £160,000, because, see. I have carried on your business for six months for £80,000; and I would have done the «ame for the remainder of the term, making L 160.000 for the year, as against L 200.000 which you bave spent owing to jour new manager." That is precisely the case put forward by the honourable -member for Christchurch North. He *tys, "When ire left ofiice we had ouly spent so much, and if you had left us in ■office we should only have spent so much in the remaining part of the year" — showing, as be says, a considerable saving -on what Government propose to spend. He allow.* to the. Government half the n mount of the supplementary estimates '' — not a very large concession as against the difference between the two half-year's •expenditure. . But having given the illustration, I will now give the figures* He -says,— ** In order that honourable members anay judge of the probabilities of the year, I will ask their attention to the -results of the first six months. I must, (however, point out that during the second •half of the year there is generally larger ■expenditure. This is. partly caused by 4he fact that a great deal ef the supple** mentary expenditure comes in- for payment during the sgeond half, and that there is a tendency to postpone payments the first half in oHer to accumulate the large item for interest payable towards -the end of October, But I shall place •the whole supplementary expenditure to to the second half, and I think that the .margin of saving which the whole year will disclose en this basis will be recognised ju much, in excess of the amount -of the unequal . payments between the two half«yeara. . For the six months ending oh the annaal appropriations—, -exclusive of the Land Fund and not including the permanent charges— as •compared with the six -months ending .on the 30th September of the previous year, no less a, «urn than,L77,799." Well, that goes, I may say, for very little, because, of course, what they saved as against 1886 were simply non- recurrent items, which they had not to pay in 1887 ; and they saved also on the first six months. As to the- votes brought down, the ex-Treasurer says,-— " We saved also for the first six months of this year on. the same annual appro* priations— as represented ; by the votes we brought down for the year's expendi* ture— no less than L 93.866." Imny say that statement is also incorrect to the extent of about Llo,'>oo, ■because the v«te< the late Government hruught down were reducible by the -amount of 1*50,000 which they were going to deduct from the salaries of the Civil .fetrvants. Half x>f that amount wouM to th* first half of the year; d that, instead of its being L 96.866, it would properly be L 86.866 Then, he says,— " This was not a saving at the rate " er year, but the actual saving on the hali year's expenditure as compared with half the votes, to tliat it was a saving at the rate of Ll 86,732 per annum. But. as T liave said, the first half is generally the less, pnd these votes did not represent the supplementary expenditure.'' Now, I have shown the fallacy which •the honourable gentleman committed, in doubling the lesser expenditure for the first half of the year and then taking it as the expenditure for the whole ye«r and comparing it with the expenditure of the present Government for .tlie last six , months, when they had to. incur the . larger expenditure, as he himself admit* was the oase last year. He then take* lie calls "another view," ahl adds in the permanent charges. He says, — " 1 will therefore take another view ; hut I am still dealing with the annual appropriations exclusive of those of the Xand Fund, and exclusive of permanent charges. Our expenditure for the halfyear was L 938.665, which represents for the whole year, L 1.878.330; Then I add what the present Government says are. services . insufficiently provided, which would hare taken the shape of supplementary estimates, L 41.90 8; Leaving the proposed expenditure of the late Government, L 1.919.23 8; For die same purposes, the expenditure of tbe present Govern* ment (after deducting the amount of L 56.000, which they propose to save on these Appropriations) amounts to L2.016,---'98 5; Showing a less expenditure on the part of tbe late Government of L 97.747." That is working the same juggle over «gain. He then goes on to criticize a portion of the financial Statement. I «annot suppose the honourable gentleman <|oes not understand the figures, but, if he does understand them, he is certainly misrepresenting them. He says, — "Honourable members may thus see that, without the further savings we proposed, we should have come out better on -the annual appropriations than the Government how indicate tbey expect to do. " The whole thing is a trick, worked out by .using the sayings almost invariably made on the votes." Now, Sir, that last expression; which is quoted from the honourable gentleman's The whole thing is a trick on his part, ■worked speech; expresses exactly what he lias done, by showing the savings from the non-recurring votes and utilising the ■difference between the two halves of the year in order to make his expenditure seem less. ; He says,then.—- --" I will now take a view of the whole expenditure, i-cluding permanent charges, —before I only took the appropriations — but exclusive still of the Land Fund. •" Our half-year's expenditure under these heads un to the 30th September was L 1.966,403, equal for a year te L 3.932.806; The amount the Government ■ay we insufficiently provided for all these services is L 75.909; Total proposed expenditure of the late Government, exclusive of Land Fund, 14.008,715 ; The proposed expenditure of the present Govern* j ment, with all economies given, in, is L 4,062,395 ; which is an excess over the late Government's of L 53.880. Besides that, L 75.909 is added to the last halfyear, making, together with the difference, close on Ll 30.000 for the extra expenditure on the second half-year, and exclusive of the economies we had in view with Sseut of Parliament ; whilst the econv es, or alleged br promised economies, he present Government are deducted from their anticipated - expenditure." . • . . The same r*»oning, which I need noi go ovw *g»i*» applies to this. " v "* -■