The Economy

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 3

The Economy

Sir.—l should like to reply to the comments in your footnote to my letter appearing in “The Press’’ last Saturday, (a) Of course there has been an annual vote from the Consolidated Fund to the Social Security Fund. It was necessary to balance receipts against paytnents. But you know quite well that that vote in is not a part of the Social Security Fund, (b) If there wa> no balance left in the Consolidated Fund Mr Nordmeyer can hardly be blamed for the estimates in th€| last Nationalisi “balance budget.” It appears as if someone in the Natioqal Party was sadly astray in his estimates. Nor can the Labour Party be blamed for the “raid” on overseas funds. —Yours, etc., A.F.P. June 4, 1958.

[Let us repeat the facts: (a) the original Social Security scheme prepared by a Labour Government envisaged an annual payment from the Consolidated Fund, which has, in fact, been provided with this one exception; (b) there was no money in the Consolidated Fund because Mr Nordmeyer had splashed it on a tax rebate, given for no apparent reason but a determination to win the General Election at any cost to the National economy. The rebate both caused the run on overseas funds and destroyed, deliberately, the balance provided in the National Party Budget. —Ed., “The Press.”]