The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Echo and The Sum. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1938. MORE WAYS OF SPENDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 225, 23 September 1938, Page 6

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

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1938. MORE WAYS OF SPENDING.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the icrony that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the yood that tr« can do.

The most striking feature of the policy which tin' Prime Minister outlined last night is it* lopsidedncss. It was a statement of the ways in which the Government, if returned to office, will spend public money. Hut before spending a Government must obtain money, and the customary ways of obtaining it are by taxing the people and by raising loans. The third way, advocated l»y some people, including a section of the Government party, is by creating money. This Government, if it is returned to power, is going to need a great deal of money, more than the record sum it is spending this year, lluw does ii propose to obtain it? 31 r. Savage last night was conveniently silent on the point, lint the people, if they are a-ked to take his policy seriously, should require an explanation. Is there to be higher taxation, or more borrowing, or is there to he a "creation" of monevf

Those questions are not asked in a carping spirit. The facts are that in this year's Budget the government provided lor the expenditure of £35,787,000, and estimated its revenue to he £35,845,000, leaving a nominal surplus of £58,000. This nominal surplus disappeared with the Supplementary Estimates. Now the Government proposes and promises to the people a number of additional services of various kinds, or extensions of existing services, which cannot be provided except at considerable cost. This cost, it should be emphasised, will be additional to the cost of the Social Security Aet, which has already aroused grave apprehension as to its effect on Government finances. At the present/ time revenue prospects are considerably less favourable than they were at this time last ! year. Mr. Nash hi nself admittted this by ' budgeting for £759,000 leSs of Customs revenue and £99,000 less from the sales tax. But while faced with the prospect of falling revenue the Government is proposing still more expenditure for next year. Is this a course which prudent, responsible men would takef