WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 May 1921, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE NATIONAL BALANCE SHEET. A HUGE SURPLUS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, May 23. The public has not yet had time to grasp the full import and significance of the figures set forth in the Dominion’s annual balance sheet issued at the end of last week. It is doubtful, Indeed, if any considerable section of the community will attempt any such herculean task. The average individual will be content to read the head-lines in the newspapers, glance down the totals and take the rest on trust. There is a surplus of £6,124,258, the revenue has increased by £8,117,020, and the expenditure by £4,287,205. It is to the credit of the Acting Minister of Finance that these facts are plainly demonstrated in fins statement. So far any one may run and read. But without the supplementary* statements, which, doubtless, will follow in due course, it is impossible to determine exactly what the figures signify. Everyone knows that a surplus does not necessarily mean the Minister of Finance has loose cash lying at his disposal, but in normal times it means the country's income has satisfied its requirements and left something over. ECONOMY AND RETRENCHMENT. But now the public is being told tha< there is need, not only for the strictes’ economy, but also for the most dr«sti< retrenchment. That this is really th< position no one in touch with the com mercial and financial world will ques tion for a single moment. If the individual has been fortunate enough to escape any personal experience of tin “money famine” he may count himsel extremely lucky. With a surplus oi over £6,006,000, the largest on recorc and more than fourteen times biggei than the surplus declared for the immediately before the war, the Dominion is beset by the gravest financial difficulties it has ever encountered. At this juncture the Government is faced by the prospect of an enormous drop in Customs duties and a considerable decrease in the receipts from income tax. It will not be surprising if decline in revenue from these two sources during the current year amounts to as much as two-thirds of the present surplus. Ir these circumstances it is scarcely necessary to fui"ther emphasise the need foi economy. POSTAL SERVICE.

In a statement issued by the Post Of. fice authorities on Saturday, the recent complaints of the Wellington Chambe; of Commerce in regard to the dispatd of English mails are dealt with at som» length. It seems that there have beei unfortunate delays and irregularitiea ii the past, and that arrangements havt been made to prevent these occurring ix the future. The contracts for the carriage of mails between New Zealand and Vancouver, and between New Zealand and San Francisco, due to expire in July next, have been extended foi another twelve months, and the contractors have submitted a time-tabh providing for an interval of fourteet days between each dispatch, with the exception thrtt between every fourth dis patch and the next tjiere will be an interval of twenty-one days. This arrangement, the authorities predict, wili provide greater regularity than has beet the case for some years past. They claim that they already make a connection With the Suez mail from Australia whenever it will be of value to New Zealand. BANNED BOOKS. Further correspondence between. Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P., and Sir Francis Bell, the Acting Prime Minister, on the subject of banned literature, has just been published. Mr. Holland’s letter runs into twelve foolscap pages of' closely typed matter, which the Post condenses into a column or so of print, but it does not appear to break any fresh ground or to present any new facts. The three books to which ths Labor leader devotes his attentiqp are the “Communist Programme,” “Red Europe,” and “War—-What For?” and he claims that the last two do not contain a single line that could by anv vk*#ch of imagination be interpreted mto-an incitement tt> violence. He adds that since the prohibition of these 'porks their, circulation in New Zealand has increase 1/ enormously, and it has to, tie confessed there is plenty of evid nee showing this to be the case. In his reply to Mr. R Mland’s belated retort, Sir Francis Roll, in a dozen lilies, politely a,nd firmly*dgcutaes 'to review his forme’ decision. h