NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 6, 2 October 1929, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

It is notable that Customs revenue collected at Wellington for the first half of the financial year, April to September 30, shows an increase of On a rough approximation about a third of New Zealand’s Customs revenue is collected here. If the Dominion figures were available, they would probably show, therefore, something like an increase of about £750,000. This increment, together with increased receipts which may fairly be expected to continue in the second half-year, should bring into the Treasury well over a million pounds more than was derived from this source last year. Actually the Minister of Finance has budgeted for £8,400,000 from Customs or about £45.0,000 more than was collected last year. If will not be surprising if Sir Joseph Ward improves on his estimate by a million. This z possibility should, not be lost sight of when the added primage duty comes up for consideration. If the half-year’s accounts do show such an improvement in Customs, the Prime Minister will have to explain why it is financially necessary to persist with the extra primage duty. An. over-taxed community will demand some better reason than the objective of producing a big surplus. * * * * On the subject of surpluses it may be remarked that the Prime Minister still continues to shed crocodile tears over last year’s deficit of £577,252. Crocodile tears because the deficit has supplied him with much political capital and has allowed Sir Joseph to appear in the role of financial saviour of his country. . Any enjoyment which might have been derived from this play-acting, however, has been rather spoiled for most people by the extra taxes they will have to pay for seeing the show. Those who have followed the course of events at all closely no doubt will have noted that last year’s deficit would have been almost extinguished had the Reform Government not changed the method of accounting receipts from the Post Office. On this point the impartial. testimony of the Controller and Auditor-General, as printed in his Annual Report, is worth quoting as follows:— “It is of interest to note that had the Post Office transactions not been separated from the Consolidated Fund as from April 1, 1928, the deficit shown in the Public Accounts for the year 1928-29 would have been reduced by approximately half a million, as the Post Office figures at present available indicate that the Post Office net receipts for the year exceeded by approximately that amount the sums paid to the Consolidated Fund as interest on Post and Telegraph capital liability and Post Office Savings Bank profits for the year.” This half-million, together with the £156,000 of advance interest payments consequent on Sir Joseph Ward’s loan conversion operations, more than make up the deficit. ♦*. . ♦ ♦ The Prime Minister’s appeal to the unemployed to register is quite a useful suggestion. It should, at any rate, be productive of a rough-and-ready measure of the amount of unemployment in the Dominion. It is satisfactory to see that an attempt is being made to secure something more than a list of names, showing fitness for light and heavy work. It should assist the solution of the problem if there were careful classification of the unemployed, not only as to general physique but as to'occupation. ' Such a return would not only throw a revealing light on which industries are at present depressed, but would lead to inquiry as to how that depression might be removed. If the inquiry were successful, idle men could be returned to the occupations in which they have training and skill. That would be more economical than putting them into camps to work at unskilled jobs for which they themselves have no aptitude. It would also help to answer Mr. J. A. Nash’s pertinent question as to what provision will be made for those unable to do heavy manual work. The Government would, therefore, do well to consider the suggested classification of unemployed as supplying data for a better-informed attack on the problem than is at present attempted.