DOMINION’S FINANCES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2542, 13 February 1923, Page 2

DOMINION’S FINANCES.

IMPROVEMENT INDICATED. RECEIPTS INCREASE BY U MILLIONS. MR- MASSEY’S BUDGET. Wellington, February 11. The Fianance Statement, which Mr Massey has promised to present to Parliament, will state that for the ten mnoths ended January. 31, 1923, the revenue collected under the various headings was £19,095,070, a$ compared with £17,049,722 for the same period of the last financial year, as follows. — Jan. Jau. 1923 1922 £ £ Customs 4,686,229.4,205,842 Beer Duty 488,727 340,484 Stamp and Death Duties 9 2,875,313 2,491,044 P. and T. . 2,373,079 2,178,719 Land Tax ‘ 1,453,500 1,519,842 Income Tax 355,573 330,192 Railways 5,272,333 5,240,563 Registration and other fees 120,817 105,719 Marine 38,221 40,789 Miscellaneous 1,002,330 895,854 Territorial . 123,481 127,200 National Endowment rev. 95,157 102,481 Dept, other receipts 210,304 70*987 19,095,670 17;049,722 The statement will show the position of the public debt as follows: — The gross public debt, as at January 31, 1923, was £220,527,088, as against a liability of March 31, 1922 of £219,054,384, the increase for the ten months being £1,473,303. The operations for the ten months were: —Raised for public works fund —General purposes, £2,899,790; electric supply, £514,000; education loans, £588,250; discharged soldiers’ settlement, £300,950; native land settlement £255,000; State forests £214,000; land for settlement discharged soldiers’ settlement, £84,000; Hauraki Plains settlement, £78,000; Rangiakei land drainage, £50,900; swamp land drainage, £40,000; Wdihou and Ohinemuri rivers improvement, £35,000; scenery preservation, £7,000; mining advances, £6,000; raised for redemption of loans, £2,984,535; total raised, £8,057,425; deduct loans redeemed, £0,584,121; net increase, £1,473,303. I FREE OF INCOME TAX SECURITIES. During the ten months, the volume of free of income tax securities outstanding has been reduced by £5,234,575, including £2,895,520 under the conversion scheme now in operation. _

Funds for redemption at 3 per cent. —Advantage was taken during the ten months of the low rates of interest offering in London to borrow £1,000,000 oil the security of Treasury bills at 3 per cent, with nine months’ currency. The proceeds were utilised for redemption purposes under section 17 of the New Zealand Loans Act, 1908, and securities for this amount were cancelled and discharged from the public debt. These transactions represent a saving in interest of about £15,000 during the nine months over seeurieties issued in the ordmary way at 5 per cent. Loans falling due in Australia: — As the balance of trade with Australia is against the Dominion, , I had arranged to redeem the loans falling due in Australia during the current year but unfortunately the exchange position became so acute that the transfer of the necessary cash, either from London or from New Zealand, presented some difficulty. In view of the prevailing conditions, I deemed it expedient to authorise the issue in the Common-' wealth of short-dated redemption securities amounting to £50,000 on similar terms to those available to investors in Australian State securities, namely 5J per cent, with alternative currencies of three, five, m ten years. The securities found a ready sale and full particulars of the charges and expenses will be submitted in due course.

The State Advances Office loan, authorised by the State Advances Board during the ten months ended January 31, 1923, amounted to £2,104,180, of which £1,804,489 was paid over to borrowers.