The Press FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1938. The Budget Debate Ends

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22478, 12 August 1938, Page 10

The Press FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1938. The Budget Debate Ends

In his speech in the Budget debate the Rt. Hon. J G Coates made two points which called ot a' careful and detailed reply by the Minister for Finance. The first was that a total of £ 1 323,500 had been transferred from the Employment Promotion Fund to the ordinary Budget accounts, thereby making the Budget accounts seriously misleading. The second was that the vote for the maintenance of public works had been reduced from £1,093,782 last year to £668.972 this year. According to Mr Coates this means that the Government has resorted to the unsound practice of defraying maintenance expenditure out of loan money. Dealing with the first point, Mr Nash explained satisfactorily transfers of relatively small sums from the Employment Promotion Fund to the Department of Agriculture and the Native Affairs Department. A transfer of £280,000 to the Labour Department he excused on the ground that this department did most of the organising work in connexion with employment promotion. The excuse is not entirely convincing; £280,000 is an exorbitant figure for the administrative cost of employment pioftiotion. But the Minister made no attempt at all to explain the transfer of £845,000 to public works. “ Some'additional moneys have been “used in connexion with public works," said the Minister casually, “ but that can be dealt “with later.” Why later? There is not much point in having a Budget debate if the Minister for Finance is not prepared to answer questions. What makes Mr Nash’s evasiveness on this point particularly unfortunate is his own statement that next year the whole of the Employment Promotion Fund will - be used for the social security scheme. This means, or seems to mean, that next year, when a decline in tax revenue is certain, the Minister wili have to find an additional £ 1,300,000 for the Budget accounts. The second point Mr Nash did not attempt to answer. He would, he said, be glad to go into it “a little later,” but “at the moment I have “no notes about it.” Surely this is a strange confession for a Minister for Finance replying to a Budget debate. It is nearly a week since Mr Coates drew attention to the decline in the vote for maintenance of public works; and it can only be said that, if the necessary information on the subject is not available to the Minister, it ought to be.