N.Z. FINANCES

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1933, Page 8

N.Z. FINANCES

' CONTROL OF. THE PURSE. EFFECT OF RECENT CHANCE. Legislation recently passed by ParItaiiient subjecting sewera] amounts to -annual appropriation is .reflected in tffe puouc accounts lor the financial >?ear itw-uL,. winch ar© now available in printed form, rue immediate effect oi iffis liigtily important change in LafiiaUieutary financial practice lias oeen to' increase pxpoauitu.-e voted oy Parliament, as dLunct rr-oni statutory aiiocatioi.e, from ±;V,UU6,oyO for 1931-52 to for 1932-33. However, the appare.it increase in ex-pcndiuhe A onset by a marked decline in spending unuer the heading ot peniii.,,rwiit appropriations, tiie touu iKffiig leduced iroin £17,854,461 to £ri',i93,2Ji, . a difference of £5,661,ZO4. ' .

For. several years the Controller and Auctiuor-tfeuerai, Ooionei G. F. C. Guiiipbell, endeavoured to induce the Govyriimoat to subject numerous accounts, at that time removed from Parliament control, to annual appropriation. By doing so, he said, Parliament would have direct supervision of large sums which., were, then appropriated automatically, or, an provisos in measures usually stated, “without further appropriation than thi:4 act.” • <

yiTPORT BY COMMraiION. About two years ago Colonel Camp- ' bell m his annua]' report advocated this far-ieaehiiig change very keenly, but it reni-ainea for the National Expenditure CommiS(si,on to emphasifie in ' ah exhaustive analysis the neea sity for giving Parliament greater control each year'over the spending of taxpayers! money. ft was held that if vaiious amounts were appropriated ehcli' year and PariHameUt. Were given the opportunity of reviewing them from time to time, there would be greater scope, for economies. The feritish Parliament until recently pasked ahnualiy by vote classes of expenditure allocated by statute in New Zealand, and the Expenditure CommXsibn agreed with Colonel Campbell that tne'system persisting in the Dominion was cumbersome from an accounting vievyppiiit and 'unsatisfactory in tlia't .it deprived Parliament of its important feyisjonary powers. Eyeii.c with the 'alterations recently made in New Zealand, it is still qiiestionatde whether the Dominion Parliament (has relatively as much authority ;in annual ' voting as has. the British 1 PdHfahient, i: 'w hic-li- pefijiaiiehtly -ap T .pj’oprrates only charges on the National Debt, payments to local taxation accounts, King’s ‘Civil List, and a number of Special salaries, annuities, and pensions; AUTHORITY OVER' PENSIONS. ; Ohei-'of the moat important single elihuges ''made the Coalition' Government' was' to' place, the pensions rote, : ohe of the largest, under annual appropriations." Tins year’s accounts" show in wliat Parliain'eat%’ -yearly - authijrily lias' been stre-tigthenied. In 1931-32,., the. .portion of the ‘ pensions vote on the annual, appropriation list wag £160,564, but last year Parliament had dneet control over the wnole vote of £3,139,224. j ‘ Although the. commission declared that'New Zealand could no longer ■ stantLA pensions hill of £3,000,000 and complained that the total vote ,in D>Sir3h was-£3,220,000 It will bb seen that last year’s expenditure' in tliis direction was not curtailed very appreciably. Members of the Cabinet : have, incidentally,': remarked recently that tli'3 pensions vote was proving the hardest of all to pare down in yiew of the stringency of the times. Another large 'vote for sociaD'seryice.s transferred to' annuut aippropriation is that 'for hospitals and eharitahje institutions, lexpemltiure for which is now lumped under the one beading, of health each year and voted by Parliament-. In 1932-33 Parliament passed 4 mim of £708,449 for this purpose, as against qjjd Kmonnts totalling only £199.357 the previous year.