"Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1937. PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 444, 27 May 1937, Page 4

"Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1937. PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

A surplus of £4 72,000 is shown in the national accounts. Some people, including some members of Parliament, seem to regard a surplus of receipts over expenditure from the Consolidated Fund as a sort of profit on the year's working, but of course it is nothing of the kind. In order to keep the country’s business running smoothly the Government has to borrow a good deal of money for expenditure on public works, but this is treated as a capital account that balances itself, the value of the work done being presumed to be equal to the amount spent. According to the Acting-Minister of Finance the surplus is due mainly to “savings" effected in regard to expenditure, end Mr Fraser seems disposed to congratulate the Government on having spent only £30,675,000 out of the £31,062,000 authorised by Parliament. If there are any congratulations from the taxpayers they will have a rather sardonic twist, because the actual position is that the State collected £26,941,000 in taxes, apart from employment tax, last year, compared with £21,554,000 in the previous year. It seems a little strained to be talking of making savings when the pockets of the taxpayers are raided for an extra five million pounds. The theory of the Labour Party is that such heavy taxation does not really hurt the community because it is merely a method of redistributing income, but the payers of income tax who provided an additional two millions and the payers of land tax whose levy was more than doubled will not agrep that the process of extraction is precisely painless. The taxation burden has grown in seven years by well over ten million pounds, and even the fervent advocates of the theory that taxation can properly be used to redistribute the national income can hardly contend that enormous and rapid changes do no injury to the community. It is safe to say that there is not a man holding a responsible position in industry and commerce that does not regard the future with keen anxiety.