Prime Minister Wants £8,000,000 by 1940

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 246, 7 January 1928, Page 7

Prime Minister Wants £8,000,000 by 1940

REVENUE FROM POWER OPTIMISM ON STATE FINANCES (Special to THE SUH.) DASGAVILUE, Friday. If the present hydro-electric development is the success that the Prime Minister hopes it will be. the State will have from £6,000,000 to £8.000,00 in cash by the end of 1940, and this money will be used either for a reduction in the cost of power or for assisting the Consolidated Fund. In an optimistic speech to the settlers of the Rnawai district, Mr. Coates expressed the belief that this would be accomplished. The present development in the direction of hydroelectric power he classed as one of the best investments the Government had made, because money would be cheap as long as the Dominion’s credit remained as high as at present, and the borrowing that was being done just now would be easily repaid in the revenue derived,from the facilities established.

For the eight months to the end of November the increased revenue from all services was £50,000, and the figures for the preceding corresponding period had been a record. Customs revenue showed a slight drop, but there were reasons for that. The production of wool was a record, and there were over 26,000,000 sheep, the largest number since 1918. Butter and cheese prices were good, the wheat crop would be a record, and the fruit and honey markets were also good. Exports of primary products would be worth £5,000,000 more than last year. The banking figures, which showed an excess of advances over deposits in December, 1926, of £7,000,000, had shown a reduction in March, 1927, to £5,000,000, in June to £4,000,000, and in September to £3,500,000. “Never was there a time,” Mr. Coates said, “when the money of the country was more carefully watched and more carefully expended than at present.”