Financial Statement.

Manawatu Herald, 21 August 1900, Page 2

Financial Statement.

♦ The Financial Statement was read by the Colonial Treasurer (Right Hon. R. J. Seddon) in the House of Representatives on Friday night. The following are the main features of the Statement ;— • The phenomenal returns from our

&^. . * . ._ . ....._ .._..■ railways and Customs clearly establish the increased spending power of the people, whilst the increases from land and incomes prove the increased value of real estate. It must be remembered that increased and new charges — such as old age pensions, £200,000 ; payment of our contingents, harbour defences and defence forces, £258,000 ; contributions to Ottawa and India, £10,000 ; *■ public health, £5000 ; lands and surj veys, £140,000 — have to be met ; and that such increased expenditure is desirable, and in the best interests of the colony. For orphanages and inebriate homes I am also providing a new item of £15,000. The expenditure is necessary, and will provide for a long felt want. It has been the practice for some years past to devote a very large portion of the surplus of the previous year in aid of the Public Works Fund. * This will, after this year, have to be partially, if not wholly, abandoned, as it is clear that, with the increased expenditure chargeable on the Consolidated Fund, together with the reductions in the Customs duties and other concessions this assistance cannot be kept up. The revenue for the year amounted to £5,580,386, to which £119,232 of other receipts were added, making a -^ total on the revenue side of £5,699,618. The expenditure amounted to £5,140,---128 leaving a surplus on the year's transactions of £559,490, to which add the balance brought forward from the preceding year of £45,861 (£495» 8 5 r > less £450,000 transferred to the Public Works Fund) and we arrive at the record balance of £605,351. The gross public debt on the 31st March, 1899, was £46,938,006; on the 31st March, 1900, it was £47,874,452, I or an increase or £936,446 for the year. The net public debt on the 31st March last was £46,930,076, or 349 in excess of the net debt of the preceding year. The oft-repeated demand for a reduction in indirect taxation cannot longer pass unheeded, and it will be useful to compare the results of the two systems . of indirect and direct taxation. Last year the contributions from the two principal sources were— From Customs (indirect), £2,107,567 ; while the land and income tax (direct) ! produced £422^456. There can be no doubt, therefore, that there is considerable weight in the argument that the wage-earning classes are entitled ; to relief by way of reduction on the • of life and such other com- i modities as are essential to their daily s wants and requirements. j The Government has now deter- j mined to make some considerable reductions in our Customs duties, but there has been some difficulty in selecting the articles upon which the remission should be made and on this question there are wide differences of •^opinion, and some of these are irreconcilable. Reductions made in the prices of articles of daily consumption by a working man and his family mean a saving in the weekly expenditure, and result practically in an increase of wages, or, more correctly, in an increase of the purchasing power of money. I therefore propose, and that with pleasure, to take off the whole of the duties on — Kerosene, rice, salt, coffee and cocoa, mining machinery, agricultural machinery, dairy machinery, dredging machinery, engines and boilers for mining and dairying, and portable and traction engines. Further, I propose to remit half the duty on — Tea (other than that in small packages), half the duty on currants and raisins, half the duty on candles, half the duty on wax matches, leaving the duty thereafter equivalent to an average of, say, 30 per cent, on the value, and that the present duty on patent medicines of 40 per cent, shall be reduced to 15 per cent. That the present duty on dn.gs and druggists' sundries and chemicals shall be reduced from 20 per cent. to 15 per cent. The remissions qp these heads amount to about £157,000. During the past ten years interest on mortgages has fallen about one fourth : this makes the id in the £ on the capital value a very heavy charge. I intend to submit proposals later on in the session that from and after the 31st March next the mortgage tax should be reduced by £d in the £. It is pleasing to be able to announce that, on and after the Ist day of January, 1901, a penny postage system *" will be established within and without the colony. This colony will therefore be the first in Australasia to h. aye a universal penny postage. For the more vigorous prosecution of our public works a larger expenditure will this year be required out of ■>* our Public Works Fund. I am of opinion that it will be necessary to ask for authority to raise a loan of one million so as to" carry on our public works policy successfully. It is proposed to bring into existence a Health Department, with full powers and responsibilities, and it will follow in natural sequence that a slight increased charge must fall upon the taxpayers : but it is better to bear with this than to have plague, diseases, death and sorrow. Tha Government have come to the conclusion that the ronte for the Main Trunk line for the most expeditious construction of the railway is the central one. Parliament has anth- j orised this, and the surveys of it are the most advanced. It is the shortest, and presents the fewest difficulties in the way of speedy construction. Last year for railways £300,000 was allocated out of the million loan. This year we propose to allocate £500,000. The Colonial Treasurer, in moving the adjournment of the House, said the present Financial Statement was the most important one which it had been his lot to deliver.