PUBLIC FINANCES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 November 1924, Page 2

PUBLIC FINANCES.

SEVEN- MONTHS’ RETURNS. ® EXPENDITURE HIGHER, For the seven, expired months of the financial year, the Consolidated Revenue increased by £595,397, and the expenditure by £-140,612, compared with the figures for the same period of last year. Preliminary returns of the finances for the seven months ended October 31 show that the revenue for the pgriod was £l2 951,845, compared with £12,356,448 for the seven months, April to October, 1923. The expenditure for the , seven months was £14,462,129, compared with £14,021,517 for the corresponding period last year. The revenue shows an increase of £440,612, made up chiefly as follows: £ Railways 210,296 Customs 234,844 Post and Telegraph 96,412 The principal items of revenue for the seven months were: £ Railways 3,674,854 Customs 4,243,543 Post and Telegraph 1,538,028 The revenue received to date, compared with the estimated revenue for the financial year, is: Estimate. Revenue. £ £ Railways 7,100,000 3,674,854 Customs 7,350,000 4,243,543 Post and Telegraph 2,805,000 1,538,028 No details of the expenditure are available. DEPARTMENTAL ACCOUNTS. IMPROVEMENT OF SYSTEM.

The Public Service Commissioner (Mr P. Verschaffelt). discusses the development of improved systems of departmental accounts. He says:—■ “The eompilatioii by departments of annual accounts and balance-sheets for publication is being .steadily improved. The inauguration of this reform has stressed the necessity for officers holding the positions of accountants being qualified by examination. The reflection of departmental activities from the point of view of finance is revealed only by properly constructed accounts, and proper organisation must go hand in hand with expansion of activities. Therh is always a danger of accounts— Government or otherwise being framed so as to conceal rather than reveal cost of administration, and this aspect must be carefully against. . “Complementary to trading, profit and loss and revenue accounts and balance-sheets is the principle of unit costing. Different characters of work are performed by the majority of departments, and it is desirable that systems of costing for the more important activities be introduced where these do not now exist. There is no reason why this principle. should not be developed in respect of commercial, industrial, manufacturing and farming activities. “Since the Avar the desirability of adopting a better form of accounts for State enterprises is becoming more recognised by leading authorities on national finance. I would mention that those who have, opposed any change in the system .in the past appear to have done so largely because of an impression that a necessary concomitant' to placing the Department’s accounts on a commercial basis is that the undertaking, like a private concern, should be run solely with the idea for profit. It should be stressed that, .however desirable such a feature may be, it is a secondary object to that of ascertaining the true results of the undertaking, whether such be a profit or a loss.”