AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1915, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

FEDEBAIi FINANCE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Ilobart, July 2. The Governor opened Parliament and referred to the war and the financial stress ahead. Bills promised inclnde the regulat ori of the price of food and the earlier closing of hotels. Melbourne, July 2. The revenue returns show that the post office expenditure exceeded the revenue by £823,275. The Commonwealth notes circulated were thirty-two and a half millions, against which' the gold reserve was £ll,!)3'J,0O0; the expenditure on old age and invalid pensions for the year was £3,394,000. Of the eighteen million loan granted by the Imperial Government, and a subsequent six million loan, about fourteen millions have already been received. It is understood that an early loan to finance public »vorks and for other purposes will be floated. Possibly Mr. Fisher will follow the example of the Imperial Government in appealing to the small investor.

Mr. Fisher, in announcing the financial position, said that the Commonwealth's difficulties were not all visible, but there was good reason for care, caution and courage. But for the war there would have been a surplus of £347,678. Victoria's revenue for the year was £10,144/588, a decrease of £458,129; at Adelaide the revenue for the year was £3,995,294, a decrease pf £827,472; at Brisbane the revenue was £7,202,058, an increase of £229,400; and for the year just ended there was a surplus of £3259 at Perth.