Waste Not, Want Not

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

Waste Not, Want Not

“As professional accountants, both our training and our experience teach

us the necessity for economy in administration and the adoption of con-

servative methods of finance, and we know that the time when receipts are expanding Is particularly tbe time when expenditure must tie rigidly scrutinised to ensure that funds available shall be administered with the utmost economy and efficiency.

"These same principles are no less applicable to public affairs than to Industry. It would be dangerous to assume that such expansion of revenue can go on indefinitely, because taxation at its present level depletes the profits available for capital replacement

“Tbe dangers of uneconomic spending are not limited to the national aspect The budgets of local authorities show a marked tendency to keep step with the expansion of national outlay. The conservatism in public finance which has served us so well In the past seems to me in these days to be In grave danger of widespread abrogation, and the policy of cheap and abundant credit provides ready encouragement

“I want to suggest that these abnormal times demand not only economy in actual spending, but a wise restraint from expenditure on the part of local authorities. The national economy will be best served at the present stage by the conservation of local resources for use In well-considered schemes of improvement and development when the stimulus of rearmament is past."—Mr.

Walter Holman, President of the British Society of Accountants and Auditors.