The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 9th. 1921 THE FINANCIAL DRIFT

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 9th. 1921 THE FINANCIAL DRIFT

We now have tho revenue and expevhuire figures of the Consolidated Fund for the four months ended July. The narftculars, comments the “Lyttelton Tillies’’ show that compared with the •orresponding period of last year t lip

revenue has fiilli‘ll by one million, in tonml figures, while tlm i.'xpenciit;>iro has 00110 up liy two millions. The sm,•tiler volume of imports lias brought Customs reveiitio down by over a million, stamp and death duties have y" Idod less liocause there lias been not .n Hindi buying and selling of hind, while registration and other fees show a small dirinkage. Other classes ol revenue show little change. The following table slums the position of the Consolifliited Fund ju> at tin* end «>t July ot this year and last year: - Kxpemlitnre 11)20 £7,71(1,112; li/21. L'9,780.1)71; movement ine. £2.010,7)21). Heventm 1020, £7,303,.501 ; 11)21, £<>,- 3(15,21 7 ; movement dee. 1,028,081. Deficit, 1020, £34(>.f>ll ; 1021 £3,115,754; Ine. P3,0(i0,n3. Of the total rise in expenditure. which is at the alarming rate of more than six milieus a year, only one-liftii is due to increased interest, pensions and tile like ; 8(1 per cent, of the rise is in the cost nf running the Departments, the class nf expenditure which it is the duty of Ministers to control and, we may add, to cheek. During the short session last March Mr Massey ventured to predict that the expenditure during the current year would ho about £25,000.000. That represented a decrease of three millions, or 2 per cent, on the expenditure last year- a not. unreasonable expectation if the promises of «conomieal administration were genuine. On that basis the fir»t four months of the current year should' have shown a full of some £030.000 (equal to 12 per (■eiit). hut the actual position is that there is a jump of over two millions, or nearly 20' per'cent, so that finances are about three millions worse than they would have been if Mr Massey’s estimate six iiioiiills ago had proved approximately correct. I'nfortunatoly. history repeats itself and the country lias to realise once more that the present Prime Minister is totally unfitted to have charge of the Ministry nf Finance. f 1 is estimates are invariably about as unreliable as they possibly could he; his foresight is conspicuous by its absence; his management of the

finances of the Dominion comprises unparalleled and reckless expenditure, with the inescnpnble corollorv of oppressive taxation. Tho situation lias long been serious, as even the most casual of observers must know, hut it is rapidly becoming worse than ever. There is no shadow of excuse for the Departments having been allowed to spend in the four months ended July. £1.000.00) more than they spent in the corresponding months of last year, and tjic increase could not have taken place if tile members of the Government were competent to do their work—unless they are indifferent.