The Dominion THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1938. SOME FEATURES OF THE BUDGET

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 252, 21 July 1938, Page 10

The Dominion THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1938. SOME FEATURES OF THE BUDGET

No reference is made to the superannuation and health . insurance proposals of the Government in the Budget presented to Parliament. by the Minister of Finance last evening. To many people their omission will anpear as its outstanding feature. It is true that it is not proposed to make the schemes effective until April of next year, but m view of the heavy financial obligations involved it would be expected that the Finance Minister would give some indication of what lies alieaci of the Dominion in this respect. But there is not a word so tar as we can see, not even a hint about it. Mr. Nash, it might be assumed, had never heard of a superannuation or a national health insurance scheme or the financing of such schemes. The mi lions of added taxation they involve presumably are to be kept in. the background until the Budget is out of the way, or perhaps it is until the Government Party can make up its mind what it is really going to do about it. . , . . . While the Minister may occasion disappointment by this omission he is entitled to credit for the variety of subjects he has covered in his Budget. Though there is very little that is ’new in it Mp. Nash has painstakingly prepared a. very complete recital of his party s achievements in office and no doubt has presented them in the best possible light. Nothing, perhaps, is better done, in this respect, than the easy fashion in which the Minister glides over the financial hurd es of the mounting bill of costs piling up under his administration. Most people are already familiar with the figures of revenue and expenditure for the past year. The amount collected in revenue, £36.059,443, constituted a record for the Dominion and the same can be said of the expenditure, which totalled £35,249,000. To the revenue figure must be added £5,105,019 collected as unemployment taxation. This last-named sum does not appear under the Consolidated Fund, but it comes from the same source as the greater part of the revenue, that is, from the’ pockets of the people. The surplus for the year was £BlO,OOO, and it is worthy of note that to show this surplus Mr. Nash collected over £5,600,000 of additional taxation. It is necessary to look back over the years to understand the rapidity of the growth of the expenditure of public money under Socialist administration as compared with that of previous Governments. Taking the past ten years—that is to say, from March, 1928, to March, 1938—it will be seen that for eight of those years under non-Socialist control. the cost of administration showed very little increase. But in the two complete years of office of the present Government the upward movement of costs and charges broke all records. The figures are as follows: —

EXPENDITURE FROM CONSOLIDATED FUND. £ 1928 24,944,905 1929 24,176,928 ' 1930 25,200,882 1931 24,708,042 1932 ...» 24,860,552 1933 22,528,379 1934 24,202,027 1935 • 24,499,595 - 1936 • 25,890,568 1937 30,675,158 1938 35,248,621 In two years the present Government has jumped up the expenditure under the Consolidated Fund by nearly 10 million pounds. This, of course, does not include expenditure on Public Works or under the Unemployment Fund. The expenditure under the Public ' Works Fund runs into many millions, and also has reached the record stage. • In harmony with this expenditure the taxation figures' have soared in almost every direction. Customs, income tax, sales tax, unemployment tax —practically all the main items of taxation revenue show substantial increases. Going back a few years some idea of the progressive increases may be obtained:

It will be noted that in the six years since 1932 taxation hab more than doubled; as has also the taxation per head of the population. The significant feature, however, is that in the four years from 1932 to March, 1936, the increase was a little over eight millions, whereas in the two years of the present Socialist Government the increase was over II millions. In other words the increase under the previous Government was at the rate of two millions a year, while under the Savage Government it has been at the rate of five and a half millions a year. / Some satisfaction may be derived from the fact that there is no mention in this year’s Budget of increased taxation. Indeed, the Minister intimates that he is budgeting this year for practically the same revenue and expenditure as last,year. But there is no sign of any easing up in either taxation or expenditure. On the contrary, while the proposed expenditure under the Consolidated Fund is estimated at approximately the same figure as last year,, it is made clear enough that this is merely a momentary pause, possibly awaiting the disclosure of the “social security” costs. Moreover, under the Public Works Fund ther? is to be a plunge made which exceeds in extravagance anything ever attempted in this country. Last year people were staggered at the Budget proposal.of an expenditure on public works of £17,367,000. This year, being /’election year, the Minister of Finance goes one better. The figure decided on is £20,719,700.

“Of this total,” Mr. Nash tells us, “£14,263,000 will require to be raised by loans, the balance being raised by taxation, electricity , sales, disposal of farm and forest produce, transfers from the Employment Promotion Fund, and from miscellaneous sources. Here, after all, is the high light of the Budget. The crowning achievement of two years of the most extravagant spending the country has ever seen— twenty millions to be spent in one year on public works with a fourtecn-million local loan to help pay for it. The sky is the limit.

Total Taxation.' Per Head of Population. £ s. d. ....... 17,405,622 11 9 4 1933 19,703,703 12 7 7 1934 21,470,827 13 8 4 1935 ! 24,737,939 15 18 4 1936 25,476,372 16 £> 6 1937 31,164,302 19 14 10 1938 36,767,525 23 1 3