NEW ZEALAND FINANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2177, 29 April 1908, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND FINANCE.

SATISFACTORY POSITION. Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 28. Sir Joseph jWard; in the course of a speech last night, said the financial position ,of the. Dominion was higklv satisfactory. The revenue of the year ended (March 31st Showed a record revenue- of .£9,055,916. Other receipts that could not be called ordinary revenue amounted to £BOI3, ' making the total receipts for the war £9,063,989. At the (beginning of the year they had 'brought forward £717,825. The expenditure for the year amounted to £8,213,905, laeving' an excess of receipts over expenditure of £850,024. Thus the Government had a total ways and means for last yoair, amounting to £1,507,849. They had i transferred from the consolidated fund to the public works fund £BOO - i 000, so that left a-ihalaneo at the end • nf the year of £707,849, to commence the new year with. The revenue for the year just dosed exceeded that of the previa;:; year by £650,871. There were increases in all sources of revenue but two. Customs revenue allowed an morease of £162,525. There had' boon ail increase of £185,207 in the post and telegraph receipts, and an advance of £90,504 in the land tax received. The effect of the increased taxation on estates over £4OOO was very mu dll felt in this year’s revenue, no- i llcomc ax sdiowcei ail increase of £2/,038; .beer duty increased £0391; £143,999; registration, etc., £!L22; marine, £1326; oash land no- ’ ; ail< l pastoral rents £30.980. Miscellaneous revenue showed a talling-off of £8543. Comparing the total revenue with that of two years ago it has risen by £1,471,587. '(Applause.) 11l ere had been no ■.boommg; it was simply that the people of tlie Dominion were making a stead'growth and expansion in their trad; and there was a spirit of confidence widespread and diffused. Referring to the expenditure, iSi.r J 0 S u-n o^ ard , S i aid tlle was £»,4p0,34G; the amount- actuallv spent was £236,381 less. Of £2,039'10l available for public works they had spent- £1,880,§91. With a hair a , n , ce £152,503, an -amount available from loan, -and £200,000 to be transferred from the surplus, they bad £01G,589 to go on with till Parliament meets. The increased expenditure on the Consolidated Fund for the last two years was £430.039. This increase) had earned £852,000. The postal revenue, he said, was £831,054, and there was justification for his statement that the revenue under that head would shortly reach a milJton,