DOMINION FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1918, Page 5

DOMINION FINANCE.

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE FOR EIGHT MONTHS. By Telegraph.—Pre»g Association. Wellington, Last Night. Particulars furnished l>y the Hon. A. M. Myers, Acting-Minister for Finance, of the revenue and expenditure for the eight months ended November SO, sho\y that the principal items of revenue wore: Customs £2,396,177, stamp and death duties £1,241,105, Postal and Telegraph £1,059,957, land tax £79,495, income tax £318,927, beer duty £165,562, railways £2,923,368, the total revenue being £9,094,090. The revenue for the month of November waa £9oo,fl'rt), a decrease of £209,352 on November, 1917, The total expenditure for the eight months ended November SO was £11,147,433.

Commenting on the figvre3, Mr. Myers stated that* the total revenue this year was £1,232,445 in excesß of the amount received last ye ax. Nearly all sources of revenue showed a considerable increase, while expenditure out of ordinary revenue account for the eight months of 1918 showed an increase of £1,751,92!) compared with the eight months of last year. This, of course, was to be accounted for by increased interest and sinking fund and pension charges. A return prepared for the Minister for Defence shows that the War Pensions Bill reached a total of £742,551 during the first eight months of this linancial year New Zealand has already paid out of war pensions £1,452.329, and the actual annual cost at the present date is £1,352,012.