The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1934. The Public Finances

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21315, 7 November 1934, Page 10

The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1934. The Public Finances

In introducing the Appropriation Bill, the Minister for Finance made a brief statement in which he showed that the revenue and expenditure returns for the half year ended September 30 support the budget estimates very well. Customs revenue, for example, was £500,000 ahead of the total for the first half of the previous financial year; and the Labour party, which has talked so much nonsense on the subject of imports, will have to grin and bear it. Other revenue items have risen encouragingly, though of course income' and land tax will not be tested until the year is closing; but the figures so far justify the Minister in the hope upon which he founded the budget, that revenue would be markedly more buoyant this year. Under expenditure, he is able to show that, while; the half year's figures exceed the strict proportion of the estimates, debt services and exchange charges have been heaped in this half and will fall in the next; but it is less agreeable to hear that expenditure on other accounts, which falls £500,000 below half the estimate for the full year, is not likely to be held at this economical level. The recorded underspending is due to " seasonal "or accounting fluctuations," and the waves of the second half year will carry the total (it is to be assumed) up to, or nearly up to, the estimated mark. What Mr Coates's comments mean, in brief, is that the year's accounts promise to close as he expected, " with a " small surplus-." But while it is pleasant to see plans working out so neatly and to be spared disappointments, it must be remembered that the nature of the plans is a little deceptive in one respect and greatly so in another. The " small " surplus" will only be achieved with the help of reserves, £300,000 this year; and the budget excludes the enormous sums levied and spent for unemployment. Nominally, expenditure for the current year is set down as £24,244,000. For the previous year it was £24,202,027; it has stood above £24,000,000 every year since 1926, except 1932-33, when it was £22,528,379. Obviously, the battle for an easier budget has not been won; successful skirmishes are all that can be reported. But the position is actually much worse than the budgets/ totals declare; for there is to be adde'. to all the expenditure totals in recent years the national expenditure upon unemployment. The Unemployment Board's estimated revenue for the current year, for example, is estimated at £4,270,000. Add that, or, say, £4,000,000 of it, to £24,244,000, and the true dimensions of the budget appear. They are the dimensions of a burden which trade and industry cannot, in present conditions, support without cramping and even crippling difficulties. Mr Coates recognises that " trade and " industry . . . are the basis

" upon which the budget rests," and describes himself as " always " on the look-out for indications of "continued improvement." It would be better if he described himself as always on the look-out for opportunities to promote improvement.