TRICKS OF FINANCE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11110, 31 October 1901, Page 4

TRICKS OF FINANCE.

In commenting on the Railways Statement we said that it was impossible to determine how far the apparently favourable results therein shown -were xeal, until we knew whether any items of expenditure were taken out of capital account, which ought to be charged to revenue. It is impossible to find this out from the accounts as laid before Parliament, but some exceedingly damaging admissions have been made, on this subject both by the Premier and the Minister for Public Works. When diaUenged with the fact that the expends ture for painting, maintenance, and repairs were charged to capital account, not only in the case of the. railways, but of public buildings, the excuse they gave was that as £500,000 was transferred from the Consolidated Fund the expenditure referred to was justifiable, although they admitted that U could not be excused but for such transference.- This js a most astonishing line of argument. .In no circumstances can the practice be defended of charging renewals and repairs to loan, especially where, as in the case of the railways, no amount is set aside out of the revenue for depreciation. The fact titet a certain aibount is transferred from the Consolidated Fund does not materially affect th& question.. To begin with, if the amount transferred from revenue to the capital account-is to foe spent on works that really ought to come out of revenue, it means that the alleged trapsfer is a mere sham and'make-believe, and that .the so-called self-reliant policy is nothing but, a piece .of hocus-pocus,'intend-ed to deceive. But as applied to the railways, the practice "of charging repairs and renewals to capital can only be intended to &aye the of inflating the accounts, and make the railways appear "more prosperous than they really are. In the case ot a private company, such a practice would be a short and easy. pa£b. to insolvency, and it -would be denounced as a fraud on .the public It certainly ought not to be tolerated in the case of a great Government department.. Mr. Seddon'e adinisslons will greatly discount the glowing account? which have been given to' <te as t» the unwonted prosperity tff our railways under Sir Joseph Ward's regime