The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The echo. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1924. THE YEAR'S BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 115, 16 May 1924, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The echo.

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1924. THE YEAR'S BUSINESS.

For the const that lacks assistant**. For the tcrong that needs resistant*. For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

The most interesting feature of the public accounts tor the year ended March 31 is not the amount of the surplus, £1,812,000, though this is nearly half a million greater than the surplus of the previous year. It is rather the decreaS. in interest payments and in the aggregate of permanent charges. We are. i basing our comments on telegraphed fisrures, but with this reservation as to the possibility of error, we may note that for the first time since the beginning of the war there is a downward ! movement in the interest and sinking I fund total. In 11)13-14 these charges were U2.fi57.000: by 1918-1919 they had risen to £6,080,000; in 1.22-23 the total was £8,899,000. Last year it fell to £8.881,000. This first reduction in an item that has been viewed with rising concern is small, but it is welcome. It is the result of debt redemption during the year, but the details of these operations are not available. There was a ! naving of considerable sums in pensions I and in "other items," go that the aggregate of permanent charges is loss by f456,000 than it was in 1922-23. Here also we have the first fall for many years. Mr. Massey haa got h's surplus by an increase in revenue and a decrease In expenditure, which is satisfactory, though he may still he taking too much from the country and over-spending. Last year he took nearly two million! more than he needed for ordinary finance, but most of these two millions has gone to public works and debt redemption. The dominant question is by how much he will be prepared to reduce taxation. Last year the income tax yield waa about £100,000 smaller than in the previous year, but it wag £282,600 above the estimate. The land tax showed a larger reduction in a much smaller total, but it also was well above the estimate. A prominent feature of the revenue account is the increase of well over a million in the Customs receipts. Mr. Massey is wont to credit himself with reducing direct taxation, but he never says much about the increased indirect taxation that he put on the people in the last revision of the tariff. The Post Office return is interesting, because it showg that, reduced charges stimulate business. The annual cost of the reduction of postage to a penny was put down at £250,000, but the whole departmental loss in revenue i« only £24.000. and the total revenue is about £200,000 greater than the estimate. Altogether, the ace.ountfi seem to reveal a healthier condition than they have done for years past. The problem of high taxation, however, continues to be pressing. Mr. Massey takes credit for large remissions of taxation, but the burden remains intolerable. The income and land tax decreases last year are much more than balanced by the additional yield from the Customs. He will lie expected to reduce the rates of taxation still further, so that industry can work more freclv and the cost of living can be eased down.