REVENUE INCREASE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1020, 9 January 1911, Page 6

REVENUE INCREASE.

COMPARISON WITH 1309. STATEMENT BY PRIME-MINISTER, Tho Prime Minister, in n statement made at Dunedin on Saturday, gives the revenue returns for New Zealand for tho nine months ended December 91 as follow.:—Total revenue from all sources, •£",148,353 (being an increase of <£703,272 over the corresponding period in 1909). There is a decrease in tho land and income tax of only .£SOOO, while -the Customs shows' an increase of .£210,000; stamps, .£209,000; railways, ,£183,000. Tho revenue for the twelve months ended December 31 last shows an increase .£843,923 over the corresponding period in 1909.

In a brief interview with a representative of The Dominion last night, . the Prime Minister stated that the position of the revenue for the nine months was exceedingly satisfactory: There was a large increase in all tho Departments with the exception of tho Land and Income Tax Department, in which there was a decrease of .£SOOO. This was attributable chiefly to tho policy of the Government in imposing an extra graduated tax, so as to bring about a reduction in large estates, and as the outcome of the up that has gone on a diminution (to" the extent brought about by tho sale of tho excesses of land) in the land tax was only natural. As the object in putting it on, added Sir Joseph Ward, was to increase land settlement, it is, from the Government standpoint, a satisfactory result. Tho principal increases were in Customs, Railways, and Stamps, the last-named including both tho Stamp and Postal Departments, the increases for those Departments, being:—Customs, .£210,000; Stamps, .££09,000; and Railways, .£183,000. The general increaso in tho revenues from the various Departments, said tho Prime Minister, shows in a very marked way that thero lias been a decided increase in trade throughout the Dominion, .as ' the buoyancy of tho revenue is characteristic of all tho Departments,' with tho exception of the Land and Income Tax. The principal reason for this decrease was, said gir Joseph Ward, traceable to tho cause he had" indicated. >

Continuing, the Prim© Minister said that there were newitems of expenditure to bo provided for during the year,, but it was not possible at tho present juncture to give with accuracy the amounts. This could only be dono when tho full returns were in at the end of the year.. The figures of the revenue, however, indicated that thero would be a large surplus available at the. close of-tho financial, year. Tho provision for tho new items of expenditure had to be made, and these items included interest and sinking fund on the cost of the Dreadnought, additional interest on new loans raised, the extra amount required to provide for internal defence, and also tho further sum necessary to provide the sinking fund under the Public Debt Extinction Act both for past and present loans.

Tlio result, said Sir Joseph Ward, eo far as it has gone for the nine months, should inspire our own people as well as those beyond New Zealand with renewed confidence, and, ho added, the general expansion of the revenue marks very distinctly the complete recovery of the Do* miniou from the cattscs -that-about two years ago led to a temporary depression of a far-reaching character. {