PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 371, 27 February 1937, Page 7

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Statement Corrected by Prime Minister.

An Australian newspaper’s assertion that the New Zealand Public Accounts for the nine months ended December 31, 1936, showed a deficit of £2,500,000 vhs the subject of a

statement by the Acting Minister of Finance (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) to the Christchurch “Press.”

“I consider the article in question to be misleading,” said Mr Savage, “and I have had the matter taken up with the newspaper concerned. It is true, of course, that as in previous years, the actual expenditure for the j nine months exceeds the revenue, but • as a large proportion of the taxation | (income tax., for instance, is not pay- | able until February) does not come j to hand until the latter part of the financial year, it is just as mlslead- ’ Ing to refer to the quarterly trans- • actions as resulting in a ‘deficit’ as to | r fer to a man who has drawn onl* I portion of his week’s pay as being | insolvent.

“The position, as disclosed by the | accounts which were gazetted recent- | I.y, is that the revenue is more than l £2,500,000 in excess of that received j during the same period of the last ; financial year, and on a proportional® basis represents practically the same percentage to the estimate for the year as the nine months’ receipts for 1935 36 did to the actual receipts for that year. On the other hand, the expenditure is more than £2,000,000 less than the proportionate part of this year’s appropriations. As I pointed out when reviewing the accounts recently, present indications I are entirely satisfactory, and, based | on previous years’ experience, I have ; every reason to anticipate that the j final figures for the year will disclose j a satisfactory position.”