The Public Accounts.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16583, 24 July 1919, Page 6

The Public Accounts.

Tho particulars of the public revenue and expenditure for the first quarter of any financial year generally give no indication of the result which may be expected at the end. of that year, because some of the main items on both sides of the account are seasonal —interest payments, for example, an the expenditure side, and on the revenue side the income-tax receipts. But one can generally understand from the first quarter's accounts the general trend of the national finances. The figures given out by the Acting-Minister for publication to-day are reassuring enough. We need pay no attention to the figures for the month of June "or those for the twelve months ending June 30th, further than to say that the practice of including in these periodical statements. the particulars for any twelve-month period except that which ends on March 31st, is of little utility, and is liable to mislead. For the quarter April lst-June 30th, ' the revenue amounted to £4,466,252, which is £863,000 more than the revenue for the first quarter of the last financial year. This is an even larger increase than that which was recorded twelve months ago, and it means that the revenue' is still very buoyant. The principal increases were as follows: —Customs, £217,000; railways, £143,000; stamps, £268,000: and "miscellaneous" (which ought to bo given in some detail), £26-1,000. Tho way in which the customs revenue keeps up is very striking.

An unusual feature of the returns is a

drop of over £80,000 in the postal and 3 telegraph revenue. The expenditure, of * course, shows a large increase. It ex- '» cecds the revenue, but it did so last ■" year, and, as we then pointed out, this s fact does not mean that anything has y gone wrong. Tho increase in tho ex--5 pendituro for tho quarter, as compared s with the expenditure for tho first quarD ter last year, is no less than £1,305,543, » and of this increase much more than f half is accounted for by tho heavier inD terest charges on the public debt and B by charges for war pensions. How tho pressure of tho war debt is beginning > to toll may be realised from the followr ing figures, setting forth tho payments - for interest and sinking fund in the first • quarters of the current and the two 5 preceding financial years:—l9l7-18, 2 £1,128,000; 1918-19, £1,814,000; 1919- - 20, £2,497,000. The increase of » £683,000 for the quarter does not imply 1 an increase of four times that amount, r or £2,632,000, for tho whole year; for tho total charge last year was - £6.086,000, and it can hardly bo Bis mil- " lions this year. Nevertheless it is ob--5 vious that tho country's chief needs are ' oconomy and energy if it is to mako 1 'sound progress. There are again some 'very substantial rises in the expendi- "' ture of the Departments, duo in part ! to tho operation of the bonuses to public ■' sen-ants. Tho most striking increase is I '. in the expenditure of the Public Health 1 -Department—from £68,000 to £181,000. i ' The Acting-Minister puts this down to i 1 the influenza epidemic; but wo thought < 'ithat the special costs of thi3 visitation • camo into the accounts for the last iuarter of the last financial year.