The Sun TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1928. A WEE SURPLUS AND A BIG LOAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 342, 1 May 1928, Page 8

The Sun TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1928. A WEE SURPLUS AND A BIG LOAN

IT has always been more of a weakness rather than a strength 1 in the manner of the Minister of Finance not to whoop about his own administrative work or that of the Government. This genuine modesty has often deprived him of public praise for the excellence of his political service. Now and again, however, it has helped to detract attention from the defects of the Government’s policy and the poorer results of its financial operations. It was an occasion for useful modesty last evening at Cambridge, where the Hon. W. Downie Stewart outlined the salient features of the national balance sheet for the past financial year, and explained its best points and others not too good. Throughout the whole of his clear and straightforward statement there was nothing to cause politicians or the people to whoop with enthusiasm. On a turnover, roughly, of £50,000,000 —half income, half expenditure, with the odd thousands on the spending side—the Government finished the year with a Surplus of £IBO,OOO. This relatively was rather a poor record, and very much different from the pleasanter experience of the Union of South Africa. But such comparisons need not be pressed because of differences in circumstances. The Dominion’s meagre profit probably calls for much gratitude that there was any surplus at all. Many political opponents of the Government, if judged by their protests and prophecies, really anticipated a disquieting deficit. Such bouquets as may be proffered in gratification for much better results than were generally expected from the Administration as a whole should be addressed to the Minister of Finance. It is appreciably clear in almost every feature of the Ministerial statement that prudence and a Scottish canniness have been his rod and his staff. Firm control kept departmental expenditure within bounds and actually saved £25,000. It still is, however, much too high, and should be subjected to an autumn pruning. More economy in the same direction would be welcomed by the taxpayer. Special expenditure was heavy, the substantial aggregate including the first instalment, a sum of £125,000, toward the Imperial cost of constructing the Singapore naval base—a dutiful practice of impulsive patriotism which might well have been deferred until hard times had passed without, imperilling the safety of any part of the Empire. As to public indebtedness and the burden of interest on many loans, the Minister claims, and supports his claim with impressive evidence, that the yoke I'eally does not chafe the shoulders of the taxpayer. If the yield from interest-earning assets be deducted, the sum of £2,270,000 only, instead of £10,000,000 a year, as has been asserted by critics, has to be found by taxpayers to meet interest on ordinary debt. This may be very consoling, but the taxpayers will not be able to withdraw their attention from the mesmerising fact that, directly and indirectly, they have to provide close on £17,000,000 a year in taxation and Customs revenue to the State. Unless and until the Government reduces the burden of taxation, no budget, no Ministerial statement, however soothing, will be hailed with delight. Thus, the best and the worst that may be said of the Government’s financial policy is that, for election year, the country will enjoy a wee surplus and another big loan.