NOT OUT OF WOOD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 568, 27 June 1933, Page 4

NOT OUT OF WOOD

From the statements made by the acting-Prime Minister recently at the opening of the conference of the Royal Agricultural Society, there is going to be no Budget surplus for the current year to stand beside the £40,000 left over at the end of 1932-33. That surplus was obtained by the use, of £2,500,000 of reserves and because Great Britain had suspended the payment of £825,000 on the funded war debts of the Dominion. This year it will be necessary to liquidate another £2,000,000 of reserves leaving the cupboard prac tically bare, but even with this money available the Government will have to budget for a substantial deficit. While improveinent in general trading conditions would help public finance just as it would private, the Government will soon be faced with the question of deciding whether it will attempt to raise further money by taxation, or, failing that, try once more to reduce internal expenditure. It is not likely that

chance of relief lies, and one profitable out'come of the Prime Minister's visit to Great Britain would be tactful opening of negotiations on this question. Without relief it seems unlikely that Dominion Budgets can be balanced for years, and nothing is to be gained by hiding the facts. The triumphant announcement of a surplus last year, while excellent in some ways of the country's credit, may create the wrong impression abroad, such an impression that it may be f elt in some quarters that New Zealand is in a fit state to carry on its heroic struggle.