NO MONEY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1921, Page 7

NO MONEY.

MR. MASSEY’S EMPHATIC REPLY. ; “The Government is sympathetic, but it cannot perform the impossible,” said the Prime Minister to representatives of the Plunket Society in Wellington when they asked for an additional grant of about £9OO. “We are up against financial trouble, and we are not at the end of it yet. Our revenue has dropped by millions. It is imperative that the expenditure shah be kept within the revenue. We have to cut down our expenditure, and cut it down ruthlessly. When I say that I mean every letter of the word. “Your society received £7750 from the Treasury in 1919-20. It received £10,920 last year. This year it has been allocated £10,650, but a supplementary payment made last year after the Estimates had been passed brings this year’s total to £13,570. ... I cannot increase your grant. 1 do not know what the position will be at the end of the financial year on March 31 next. I may be able then to reconsider v/hat I am saying to you now. But at present I can only ask you to keep your expenditure within your income. “The country is not going to blue ruin, but it must be given a chance to recover itself financially. If you come along on March 31 and tell me that there is a surplus in the Treasury, and that the prices of produce have improved, then I shall ask my colleagues to consider the application you are now making, but I cannot do it at present. Watch the newspapers, and when you see that wool and meat have gone up 23 per cent, in price you can come to me again. Until that time happens and I can make the accounts balance I can’t do business. I am very sorry to have to