BUDGET NOTES.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 280, 9 July 1908, Page 5

BUDGET NOTES.

« The Financial Statement delivered. by the Premier on Tuesday night shows the revenue for the past financial year to have reached the record sum of £9,055,946. ■ The chief increases were in Customs, £162,525 ; railways, £143,999; stamps, £185,207 ; and land tax, £90,504. The expenditure for the year also constituted a record and amounted to £8,213,965. The public debt on March 31st last was £66,453,897, an increase for the year of £2,274,857. The current year’s revenue is estimated at £8,985,000, and expenditure at £8,662,993. A loan of £1,250,000 is to be raised for public works. It is proposed to increase the subsidy to the British Navy from £40.-000 to £lOO,OOO a year. Authority is to be asked to increase the borrowing powers under the Advances to Settlers Act from £5,000,009 to £6,000,000. It is proposed that the amount authorised for advances to workers be increased from £209,000 to £54)0,000. The House is to be asked to ■ enable the men in the railway department who went on strike in 1890 to count for continuous service for superannuation purposes. A Bill is to be introduced inaugurating a National Superannuation Fund, to which all New Zealand residents under the age of fifty-five will be at liberty to contribute.