THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1916, Page 5

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

TO BE DELIVERED TO-NIGHf.

BIG FIGURES AND BIG PROPOSAI-S (From Our Own Correspondent.)' Wellington, Last Nigh!/. ' The Minister of Finance is obdurate. A crowd of journalists have been be- . sicgini his office in relays half the day, begging for a few words about the contents of t\\i Budget he is to deliver to-morrow night, but up to the time of closing th« telegraph office he has vouchsafed never a syllable. "I would like to give you what you want,'' he must have iterated and reiterated a dozen times to each of his tormentors. "T really would, but I simply canV All this, of course, is very aggravating, nrd to the reporter who has no respect for precedents and traditions, seems "very unnecessary. Still. Sir ■Joseph Ward's very refusals to say anything have suggested one or two thing* of inteicst. He might have said tliat the Budget will record in precise figures a buoyant finance and a substantia ' surplus. There can be no doubt the new taxes have yielded more thanwas evpecte.! from them, and certain economies have assisted in making the balance at the end of the year an ex« tremelv satisfactory one. Then the Minister's reticence suggests l'"»t there will be further taxation. Sir Joseph indeed admits this soft impeachment, which may not be so soft after all for people who are making large war profits, or holding vast areas of land, er enjoying particularly large incomes. It is pretty safe to' predict that war profits will be handled fairly drasticilly, not, perhaps, so drastically as Mr. John Payne would have them handled, but yet comprehensively enough to make them less worth earn- ' ing except by strictly legitimate meant. The reporters' enquiries have been directed more particularly towards the war loan, which an agitated press has been u-ging upon the attention of tho Minister. Sir Joseph still smiles at the zeal of his advisers. "They will be pleased, I am sure."' 1 he said to one eager pressman, "to find what the Goveminent has done." Probably what they will find is that the Government has not been "sponging" upon the Mother Country nearly so heavily as is popularly, supposed, and that it is following a policy of self-reliance, which will astonish many of its critics. There will be a loan—no Budget would be complete without a loan—and provision will bo made for the Dominion beating a substantial part of the financial burden in connection with the war, which might have been passed * oil to the Imperial exchequer. It is unlikely that anv of the additional revenue required will be obtained from Custom* duties, and people who have been speculating for a rise in the price of sugar and o'her commodities will probably burn their fingers if the. stories that are going the rounds may be credited, The Budget will be Seddonian in- its dimensions, and will discuss several questions not immediately associated with the , department of the Minister of Finance. One of these, it may bo assumed from the Prime Minister's statement in the < House the other night, will be the cost of living, and it will not be surprising if Sir Joseph is able ; to give information concerning an arrangement made with the Colonial Sugar Company, which will be sufficient in itself to vindicate his policy in the creation of the Board ■ of Trade. The Budget will exceed i'U previous Budgets in the magnitude of its ftanres, and in the far-reaching effects of its proposals, and its delivery is being awaited with the keenest interest by both lides of the House, and in the city.