£40,000 FROM RESERVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 138, 13 June 1932, Page 5

£40,000 FROM RESERVES.

FIJI'S BUDGET DEFICIT.

NEW YEAR OPENS BADLY. SUVA, June 8. The Governor, Sir Murchison Fletcher, in his address at the opening of the Legislative Council on Thursday, disclosed that for 1931 the accounts showed a deficit of £40,000. The expenditure, estimated at £622,541, was £605,973, while the revenue, estimated at £603,689, was only £565,393. The difference was made up by using some of the colony's special reserve of over £187,000, which was regarded as a "nest egg" for some special disaster, such as a bad hurricane or big floods. The year therefore started with this reserve reduced to £147,000.

The address all through had a tone of optimism, which is regarded as not at all warranted by the Elected Members and the general business community. When the Budget was being put through last November the Governor said that 1932 promised to realise the .estimated figures, and the Elected Members said that view was not warranted. Their opinion seems to have been more than justified, because for the first five months there is a deficit already of about £20,000. His Excellency says that this will bo made up in the last six months, but the Elected Members think that the colony will do well if the last six months hold their own.

The Governor rightly points out that the hurricanes and floods last year caused an unforeseen expenditure of about £20,000. The production of all our chief products, viz., sugar, copra, and bananas, shows an increase over thy similar months in 1931.