FINANCE

Press, Volume L, Issue 14908, 5 March 1914, Page 7

FINANCE

THE REVENUE BUOYANT. The Minister for Finance, the Hon. Jamav Allen, who arrived in Christchnrch last evening, was able to give a "Press" reporter the information that the revenue of tho country for the pn.it eleven months of the financial year wag very buoyant. •''As a matter of fact," said the Minister, "the returns made up fur the njonta just closed show that the increase in the revenue for the cloven taontha of thc financial year now completed, over the corresponding eleven months of last yoar, is i1432,19L tif this increase no less than £266.76") came in February, this being chiefly due to tho payment of the income tax.'' The revenue generally, he indicated, bad been more than up to expectations, with the exception of the railway Tevenue,.which.had fallen short because of the upset to trade and traffic caused by both tbe strike and the epidemio of smallpox in the North. It was obvious that the Minister if Finance would have been just a little better pleased if the railway revenue had Hot been affected by the strike, for a good railway year would have ob\viated'any pcssible anxiety at all. and eoa&led increases in the railway men's rfa_a% an~d other things to be done with greater comfort than might be the ewe. This aftermath of tbe striko wa* ■ just another little indication of how strikes unfortunately reacted upon those least able to bear them.