Dominion’s Finance.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4436, 15 July 1909, Page 3

Dominion’s Finance.

HOtf. J. A. MILLAR INTERVIEWED

TOTAL SURPLUS £984,221.

Wellington, July 13. The Hon. J. A. Millar, in an interview, replied to a statement made by Mr Kent, chairman of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, that the revenue last , year Was over half a million short of expenditure. It appeared to him that Mr Kent made an error by taking the amount brought forward, £767 849, at the beginning of the year and substrecting from that the balance at the end of year, £184,321, and then saying it was an excess of expenditure over revenue. A careful study of the figures would have shown £BOO.OOO was transferred from the consolidated revenue to the public works account, and this was not an expenditure from the Consolidated Fund, but was a transfer to the Public Works Fund in lieu of borrowing. In years past the surplus from the Consolidated Fund Lad been transferred to the Public Works Fund, but the surplus of this year can only be transferred in tbe following year. The result was that the ascertained surplus for the year ending 31st March, 1908. was in due course transferred to the Public Works Fund, plus £32,000 from the revenue account of the year.

To put the position clearly so that no One could make a mistake, he gave tbe as follows :—Ordinary reven « account for year : Revenue, t.OOI, 185 ; other receipts, £BOO ; total 001,685. Expenditure account : Appropriations, £,785.513 ; excess of receipts over expenditure, £216,472 ; balance brought forward from the previous year. £767.849 ; excess of receipts as above, £216,472 ; total, £984.221. Transferred to the Public Works Fund, £BOO,OOO ; credit balance On the 31st of March, 1909, £184,321. Mr Millar maintained this position was made clear by Sir Joseph Ward at Invercargill in his speech. Since 1891 no less than £7,230,000 had been transferred from the Public Works Fund to the Consolidated Fund.