BUDGET IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2033, 25 September 1919, Page 3

BUDGET IN BRIEF.

1918-19 revenue amounted to £22,352,872, with the substantial surplus of £3,678,773. The accumulated surplus on March 31st, 1919, amounted to £15,239,501^

The Public Works Fund on March 31st last had at credit: £186,199. Another two million loan is to be provided. Public Works expenditure tor the year amounted to £1,207,921. The war expenditure to June 30th, 1919, including £4,095,911 held on imprest account, amounted to £61,118,015.

The Avar loans raised in the Dominion as at June 30th totalled £43,761,665, the approximate cost of raising being one-half of 1 per cent.

The investments in London increased to £16,804,348 as at 31st March, 1919. The ordinary revenue reserve increased to £12,021,529 daring the year.

Loans falling due during the next seven years amount to £39,098,015. The Customs and Excise revenue for the current year is estimated at £4,677,000. Laud and income lax receipts last year amounted to £7,732,029. This 'year’s estimate is £7,360,000. Land lax receipts advanced by £126,985, and income tax by £599,775. The total cost of the epidemic is slated at £220,000, reducible by possible recoveries from sale of cquip- - ment, etc., to a net expenditure of £197,000. £60,000 is required to meet the allowances to epidemic widows and widowers. The estimated cost of the Epidemic Commission is £1,200. Cinematograph films amounting to 3,479,860 feet were examined by the censor during (be year, the fees collected (£1,160) being in excess of the expenditure. Special increments uf the rates

of animal grants to secondary

schools ami technical .schools lu the amount of £30,000 appear on the present estimates. Old age, widows', Military (Maori Avar) and miners’ pensions last year absorbed, with the allowance under the Finance Act, £887,002. Fifty-live per cent, of the gro>s expenditure of the Prisons Department was covered by the value to the State of prison labour employed on the farms and other prison "industries, and upon public ' works, etc., the cash equivalent being- £53.-05-1.

Stamp duties revenue amounted to £2,124,778, or £323,75!) in excess of the previous year’s collections. Deposits in the Post Office Savings Bank fur the year amounted to £18,101,105, the AvithdraAvals totalling £11,038,203, the balance remaining at credit of depositors at the close of 1018 being £33,418,125, as compared with £17,131,413 at the end of 1013.

The interest credited to depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank during the year exceeded one million

sterling. The lotalis.ilor tax reached £220,273, an increase of £15,341. The bank-note lax amounted to £IBB,OO3 —£20,08!) in excess of the 1917-18 total.

£40,201 was paid over in connection with the amusement tax. The land revenue amounted to £1,240,848.

Voluntary contributions to various overseas relief funds during the year amounted to £279,298, and for the period since the outbreak of war to £1,374,004, including the Government contribution of £228,145 to the Belgian Belief Funds.

The value of minerals entered for exportation, and of the coal produced in the Dominion during 1018

amounted to £3,088,108, as against £2,490,870 during the previous year. The increase is, however, solely due to the higher valuation placed upon the coal.

Owing to the scarcity of labour

and the continued high cost of building, only fourteen workers’

dwellings were provided during the year. With the approach of more normal conditions it is intended to proceed with the erection of a large number of these dwellings, and arrangements for the first two hundred have already been made. The .number of contributors to the National Provident Fund at the close of the financial year was 14,000. The annual revenue is now £70,000. Maternity claims dealt with amounted to £17,043, of which £13,744 was due to approved friendly societies and £3,899 to contributors to the fund.

Public Trust Office operations for

the year ended March 31st resulted in a profit of £70,155. The assurance and reserve fund has been increased bv ,€(>,107, and now stands at £222,197.

Branches of llie Public Trust Office have been opened during the year in seven provincial towns, and office sites have been purchased at Hamilton and Palmerston North, upon which office buildings will be erected when conditions return more closely to normal. The fund established by the Reform Government for the insurance of public buildings noxv stands at' £05,008, Claims amounting to £846 arising out of fires were met during the year.

_ The State Fire Insurance Office has, increased its net income from £91,380 to £90,458. It paid income tax to the amount of £13,793, and wound up a successful year with a surplus of £28,472. Its accumulated funds amount to £314,020. A sura of £318,000 is made avail-' able during the present year fur increases of salaries and allowances to teachers employed and others en-

gaged in primary education. The increases are to take effect retrospectively a 3 from April Ist, 1919.

Parliament is to be asked tp sanction special loans for education lands and buildings, to the amount of halTa million during the present year and three-quarters- of a million daring each of the four following years, the provision to be thus made totalling £3,500,000. Thirty-one estates were purchased for discharged soldiers, making a total area of 507,§90 acres available for settlement.

To assist soldier settlors, sums of £831,420 wore disbursed during the vear.

Advances, authorised to discharged soldiers engaged in town occupations to enable them to purchase homes amounted to "£318,752,

War pensions granted to March 31st totalled 34,071, representing an annual value of £2,28!),333.

£600,000 is to be provided for the Government hydro-electric schemes. Increased payments are promised to Government; employees. To strengthen the Railways Superannuation Fund the Government is making an additional subsidy of £50.000 this vear.