PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 52, 3 March 1930, Page 9

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

A MOUNTING TOTAL

WHAT HAPPENED IN 1921.

NEEDED NOW,

(From the Taxpayers' Federation.)

With a session of Parliament approaching and the close of the financial year at hand it may not be amiss to marshal afresh the figures which record the growth of expenditure in the public departments since the beginning of the Great War. These figures may not exactly agree with the records of the Treasury, and those dealing with the Railway Department aiid the Post and Telegraph Department, as the Government Statistician has explained, being affected by changes in methods of accounting, arc only approximately'correct. The figures refer to expenditure from revenue only, no account being taken of loan moneys belonging to any Department, and show the following comparisons:—

To a very dargc extent the cost of the war is responsible for the increased expenditure per head of poplation, but that it is not responsible for the whole of it is shown by the following figures, permanent expenditure being attached to war and annual expenditure to other purposes.

In November, 1921, a very representative deputation waited upon the Right Hon. W. F. Massey, then Prime Minister, with an urgent'appeal to the effect that he would take steps to substantially reduce the annual expenditure, which at that time, in ,'.e opinion of the deputation, had reached alarming dimensions, iir. Massey impressed by the deputations representations, promptly set about the task imposed upon him, and as a result in 1923 taxation was reduced by £1,964,970, in 1924 by £1,980,725, and in 1925 by £829,530, a total reduction of no less than £4,775,225. Then Mr. Massey passed away. What has happened since is shown by the figures already quoted. The principal increases in Departmental expenditure for the years 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929 were as follow: Legislative Department, £121,000; Prime Minister's Department, £28,000; Stamp Duty Department, £69,000; Native Department, £9000; Cook Islands Department, £67,000; Prisons Department, £29,000; Police Department, £83,000; Pensions Department, £313,000; Internal Affairs Department , £264,000; Mental Hospital Department, £84,000; Defence and Naval Department, £1.202,000; Labour Department, £40,00; Lands and Survey Department, £40,000; Agriculture * Department, £410,000; Tourist Department, £40,000; Education Department, £841,000. Total, £3,585,000.

Of course everyone knows, that during the period under review there have been exceptional demands upon the Government for assistance to soldier settlers, for the relief of unemployed, for the provision of endless' social services, for new schools, fo£ larger hospitals, for agricultural colleges, for increased pensions, for higher salaries in the Civil Service, and even for increased honorariums for members of both Houses of Parliament. No doubt it is difficult to Yesist these demands, some of them being Avell grounded and all of them presented with more or less plausibility; but again the public expenditure is mounting up apace, and it behoves every member of Parliament, irrespective of party leanings, to be an "Independent," as Mr. Massey was in the last three years of his administration, in seeing that the taxpayers —Which means every member of the community—are not unnecessarily burdened.

Mean Expen. Head Year. Expenditure. Population. Popula'n. £ £ s. d. 1914 .. 11,825,S04 1,125,62S 10 10 1 10.17 . . 14,008,770 1,140,225 12 4 7 1021 . . 28,128,730 1,252,200 12 9 3 102(i . . 30,038,511 1,302,073 21 11 7 1928 .. 31,630,028 1,443,323 21 17 7 1929 ... 33,520,047 1,408,328 22 16 7 (estimated)

Per. Per Head Per Head Appro. Populat'n. Perman't. Annual. £ £ s. d. £ s. d. 1921— i,289,01S 1,125,028 3 1G 2 6 13 11 1014 — 12,234,725 1,252,200" 9 15 5 12 13 11 1920— 13,5S0,928 1,392,073 9 14 2 11 13 5 igog " 10,000,081 1,408,328 10 4 5 12 12 2