DOMINION DEFICIT

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1932, Page 5

DOMINION DEFICIT

BELOW ESTIMATE

SHOWN TO BE £2,140,819.

(Per 1 'ress Association — Copyright.)

WELLINGTON, June 30

1 The actual Dominion defied for the financial year, ended -March 31st. last, .js shown by the audited accounts published in a supplementary Gazette;,' I’’to' 1 ’’to' hie £2,140,819, or roughly £400,000 better than was anticipated by Hon. W. Downje Stewart, when lie made his estimate on the basis of -the figures for eleven months of the year. Air Forbes, commenting on the figures, said that it would lie seen that the actual revenue was £22,719,733, and the -expenditure was £24,860,552. The expenditure was not as great as antic'pated, and but for the fact that the exchange costs, which had amounted to £374,C00, were-not allowed for in the budget, the expenditure would have been less than the amount estimated; As it was, the ■expenditure exceeded the budget estimate by £233 - .ooo!. ;. , '

He said: “Economies were reflected in the annual votes to a much greater extent than had been expected; and one of the most satisfactory features is that the Vote expenditure is approximately ,£300,090 loss than the Appropriations, even, though the- Appropriations were cut down to the minimum.” Mr Forbes said that a deficit of t-he , magnitude- of £2,140,000 could not be accepted with equanimity, But regard had to be made for the economic circumstances prevailing, and, we could at least derive some satisfaction from the fact that the deficit was not as large as had been* feared. It would -be interesting to note that for the most part, the deficiency was caused by an extraordinary expenditure on exchange, namely £374,000, and by the subsidy to the Unemployment fund of £1,120,000. /