AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 301, 17 September 1934, Page 10

AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW

Mr. Forbes on Finance PAST DIFFICULTIES By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, September 15. An optimistic view of the future financial position of the Dominion was taken by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, in an address at the annual Association Day smoke concert of the Christchurch Commercial Travellers’ Association. The last few years had been difficult for the Government, said Mr. Forbes. Before he occupied his present position he had thought the position of Prime Minister was pleasant. He had found, however, that. the first things he had to do as Prime Minister were unpleasant. Faced with figures showing the financial position, he had found that unless certain things were done the country would get into a far worse state. He had said to himself, “You are not here to receive bouquets, but to do your job, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant.” Many things he had done had caused dissent, he continued, but they had been done in an honest belief that they were for the good of the country. Instead of being faced with a Budget estimating for a deficit of nearly £8,000,000, the Budget now estimated for a surplus of something like £BOOO. That was a tremendous difference. When the Coalition Government was faced with a deficit of £8,000,000 the Government did not attempt to make the finances balance, maintaining that in the circumstances it should do the best it could and when the times improved present a better Budget. “I do not apologise for what we had to do,’’ said Mr. Forbes. “We did not make matters worse, and we have a right to be proud of that.” He declared that there was no clearer indication of the improved financial position of the country as a tvhole than that it had been possible to estimate for a surplus. He took credit for the Government for having restored partly the cut In Civil Service salaries and for reducing unemployment taxation.