FEDERAL FINANCES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2470, 22 August 1922, Page 4

FEDERAL FINANCES.

ESTIMATES FOR CURRENT YEAR. CIVIC SERVICE REFORM. MELBOURNE, Aug. 18. The Budget estimates the revenue for the current year at £62,518,250, or £494,557 above the expenditure. The Government proposes to create a. sinking fund of one-half per cent on the totnl amount of the indebtedness, with the object of redeeming the war debt. Such a fund would extinguish tho debt in fifty years. The estimated expenditure on war pensions for the current year is £6,750,000, a decrease of £278,000. This l-eduction is due to the fact that the physical conditions of tho pensioners, on the whole, has improved. Repatriation expenditure is estimated at £1,771,000, a decrease of £321,000, due to the progress in the re-establishment of soldiers in civil life. The Treasurer stated that the Washington Conference had made it possible largely to reduce defence expenditure, which was estimated at £6,642,000 last year. Ile fqreshodowed the appointment of a- commission to consider the re-classifying of the Public Service, with a view to reducing its cost and securing better efficiency. The Government nlso proposes, ns far ns possiblo. to rely on the local market for the raising and conversion of future lonns. The Treasurer estimated the expenditure on invalid and old age pensions for the current year at £5,457,000, due chiefly to the increase of pa yment from ten to fifteen shillings. As part of the Civil Service reform, it proposed to remove all public servants in receipt of over £3lO annually from the operation of the Pubftc Service Arbitration Act. The Government does not see any method of reducing the salaries of publio servants without grave m--3legislation is foreshadowed, placing tho ('ommonwealth Shipping line _ under independent control.—Press Association.