N.Z. DEFICIT

Hokitika Guardian, 1 June 1931, Page 5

N.Z. DEFICIT

FOR LAST YEAR, £1,639,000 NET. fby Telegraph, Per Press Association.! WELLINGTON, Alay 29. Ihe accounts lor the first financial year have been published in the SupI lomentary Gazette to-day. Commenting 011 the final figures, the Prime Minister and Mi.iNster -of Finance, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, in the eminn of a statement, said that it would ho seen that the revenue for the year amounted to £23.068.931, which was approximately £2,050,000 less than wa s estimated in last year’s Budget. The principle items concerned in the shortage were:—Customs : £925,000. Railway Interest £695,000. Stamp and Death Duties: £390,000, The expenditure chargeable to the year’s revenue amounted to £24,705.012. made up as follows : - Permanent appropriations, £17.035.863; Departmental votes. £7,672.179; total £24.708.042. Thi s total is approximately £290.000 less than the Budget estimates, and. in view of the fact that those estimates were most carefully pruned when the Budget was being prepared, this result i s satisfactory, and indicates efforts made by the Government to keep expenditure clown to a minimum. “The not result for the year.” added the Prime Minister, “is a deficit of £1.639.000. The transactions for the year will he fully analysed in the "Budget, which will he presented to Parliament during the coming session; hut it will be seen from the figures that the deficit arises from a heavy decline in revenue, which, for the most part, occurred during the last quarter of the veer, when it- was too late to recast the Budget, or to take any adequate steps to meet the position. The bade cause is. of course, the worldwide fall in orices.