AUSTRALIAN LOSSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 241, 11 October 1930, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN LOSSES.

Deficits in Federal and State

Revenue. RAILWAY RETRENCHMENT. (Received 11 a.m.) CANBERRA, this day. The financial returns o the Commonwealth for the past quarter disclose an excess of expenditure over revenue amounting to £6,747,000. The Customs revenue is at least £2,000,000 below the estimates and a similar position is disclosed with regard to the sales tax, estate duties and postal revenue. These figures, however, cannot be taken as an accurate* indication of what the position will bo at the end of the financial year. On the revenue side, for instance, nothing has yet been received on account of interest on loans to the States, which is estimated to yield £1,519,000 before June, 1931. The quarter's deficit in South Australia was £1,120,78-1, and in Tasmania £33,939. Moving the second reading of the Road anil Transport Bill in the South Australian Assembly, the Minister of Railways, Mr. W. J. Denny, said that economies amounting to £011,000 will be effected. The salaries of officers will be reduced, and a retrenchment of over 900 officers and men will be carried out. Many free passes will bo discontinued. The Board of Industry decided that the State basic wage should be reduced from £4 i>/0 a week to £3 15/. The New South Wales Railway Commissioners announce that as a result of the setting aside of the _ Federal awards S 1-3 per cent reduction in wages provided for under the State awards would be made general throughout the service, operating from to-morrow.