Government Expenditure

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 169, 13 April 1932, Page 11

Government Expenditure

Sir. —The Hon. W. Downie Stewart announced in Parliament on Thursday evening that “Unless far-reaching adjustments are made to reduce expenditure and increase revenue, the deficit for the current financial year would amount to £8,300,000.” The Minister gave the total Government expenditure for the year as £26,120,000. As nn unfortunate “shareholder” in this unlimited company called New Zealand, I desire to make an emphatic protest against the enormous Government expenditure during the past year. The people of New Zealand have been given to believe that great economies had been made and that the cost of administration had been reduced by a very large amount, running into millions of pounds. Where are these savings? The so-called economies arc quite illusory, the cost of Government is just as heavy now as ever it was, and the unfortunate taxpayers are compelled to pay up additional millions of pounds to bridge the gup between revenue and expenditure. When will the Coalition Government “face the music” and definitely bring about some real reduction in expenditure? To save a million pounds in one direction and spend it in another is no reduction, but this is what the Government has been doing for some time past. Surely, Sir, it should be possible to reduce Government expenditure below the 1928 level of £26 million, especially so when our revenue is down to roughly £l7 million, and still likely to fall further? Increased taxation will most assuredly add to the financial difficulties of the Government and at the same time still further retard industries and business generally, resulting in reduced revenue in income tax and Customs duties. The time has arrived when the Government must be made to realise this fact and act accordingly. The Government appears to have no financial policy worthy of the name, but it is hoped to reach Budget equilibrium by 1934; by this time thousands of taxpayers will have “evaporated,” and the main source of Government revenue will be dried up.—l am, etc., MERCHANT. April 8.