DOMINION FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1922, Page 6

DOMINION FINANCE.

OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR. SLOW IMPROVEMENT SOON. INFLUENCE OF EUROPE’S CONDITION. Wellington, June 16. The finances of the Dominion were referred by the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand (Mr. George Elliott) at the annual meeting to-day. He referred to the statement made by the Prime Minister recently, when he stated that the ordinary revenue for the year ended March 31 last was £28,127,007, being a decrease of £6,133,954 upon the revenue of the previous year. The expenditure amounted to £28,466,838, an increase of £33*8,108 upon that of the previous year. The principal shrinkages in revenue were found in customs duties, which, after being unduly swollen by the heavy importations of goods in the year ended March, 1921, have now come down to more normal figures, with a decrease of £3,313,290. The incoitie tax also yielded £2,245,958 less than the year before. During the next five or six months, a continuance of the present stringent conditions is to be expected—indeed, we shall be fortunate if conditions do not become more acute. Ver}’ little money will be coming into the Dominion, owing to the usual seasonal contraction of exports, but there is every indication that by the end of the year, when proceeds of produce become available, a gradual improvement will set in. Boom effects cannot be got over without serious -trials and much hardship—the penalty must be paid. The school of hard experience must, by now, have taught our producers that prices are determined, so far as this country is concerned, mainly by the purchasing power - of the people of Great Britain, and that any attempt to bolster up prices beyond that purchasing power is foredoomed to failure. Conditions in Europe may gradually improve if some satisfactory solution of the economic difficulties of the Continent can be arrived at. Such a solution would benefit our chief customer, Great Britain, in whose destinies the prosperity of this Dominion is involved.

The natural advantages of our country are very great indeed, and if our people will accommodate themselves to the altered conditions, and be of good cheer, we may confidently look forward to a steadily though perhaps slowly, improving position.