REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 10, 11 January 1918, Page 4

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

The outstanding features of the revenue and expenditure figures that Sir Joseph Ward gave out on Thursday are the decrease in indirect taxation, the increase in direct taxation, and the leeway that the railways are making. In the past nine monthe of the financial year Customs receipts have decreased half a million. Sir Joseph Ward, however, allowed for a decrease for the twelve months of nearly a n2illion, so that he may claim that these figures are satisfactory. Evidently we have been importing more than the Government at one time thought was possible. The income-tax figures are again arresting. For the nine months the increase is £220,000, and, of course, the next three months will witness heavy payments. But the figures for the calendar years 1916 and 1917 are more striking, the amount collected in 1917 icing over three millions greater than the amount collected in 1916. The increase in the income tax last-yeaj waa actually greater than the whole of the amount that Sir Joseph .Ward expected to get from the Customs in the current financial year, and large payments under the revised schedule rates of last session have yet to be made. This shows clearly how greatly the incidence of taxation has changed eince the daj's when the Customs were our main'source of revenue.

The railway figures are disquieting, for while the revenue decreased by over £300,000, the expenditure increased by £38,000. The fact that in nine months the Department has gone back £340,000 suggests that a revision of policy may be necessary. Has the policy of cutting down the" number of trains, and at the same time raising fares, been justified? Has the Department done everything possible to enable it to maintain services and at the same time release men for the war? Has it made the most use of possible substitutes for men wanted for the army? One reason we ask these questions is that other big businesses carry on successfully, and pay their way, although many of their men have gone to the front.