THE FINANCE BILL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 140, 15 June 1909, Page 6

THE FINANCE BILL.

The Finance Bill which was circulated yesterday ,is a "hand to mouth" measure with a vengeance. As everybody knows, the financial provision made last session provides, in accordance with established custom, for the carrying on of the business of the country until the 20th of the present month. The usual procedure is for Parliament to meet just before the end of June and to pass at once an Imprest Supply Bill, which provides the necessary ways and means for the public services during the current year pending the final appropriations later on in the same session. In the present case, Parliament is to be prorogued in a day or two, till the end of the September quarter, and the Budget is not to be expected until the middle of j October. There is no time ' to review the position properly and make the necessary permanent provision, but unless something is done during the few days which alone the Legislature has decided for the present to devote to its duties, there will be no money to keep things going until October. 'The Public Revenues Act provides that if within three months after the beginning of any financial year no Act is passed granting and appropriating the necessary moneys, the Minister of Finance ' may issue and pay moneys during those three months, provided that (1) the payments in respect of any service shall not exceed the unexpended balance of the appropriation for that service during the preceding year together with an amount equal to one-fourth of the total of all salaries, wages, rents, and other recurrent charges and contingencies provided for by such vote and set forth in the Estimates, and (2) that no payment shall be made for services other than those provided for in the Appropriation and Estimates, or in excess of the scale therein set forth. Sir Joseph Ward proposes, in tho first place, to extend this clause by substituting for "three months" the words "period ending on the close of 14th October next," with t 1 j necessary consequential amendment to limit the scale of expenditure during this period to that provided for the year 1908-9. The power is also asked to increase the unauthorised expenditure from £100,000 to £150,000 — a permanent provision, apparently, which it is not desirable to hustle through in "uo*ftteh" legislation of thi» kind. The Premier's memorandum ca-

timates an excess of expenditure over revenue during tho period in question amounting to £312,837, of which a part should be accounted for by the economics in the Public Service, and the balance is to be made good by Treasury Bills. It is to be regretted that the credit claimed by the Government for reducing this form of indebtedness should be so speedily impaired. For the Public Works Fund authority is asked to raise a- loan of £1,250,000, which is the same amount as that authorised last year, and £250,000 more than that of the previous year. "This," bays the Premier, "will enable the Government to provide for the employment over the winter of those men at present out of work who are willing to accept same." It is certain that in the present state of our finances not much help can be expected for public works from the Consolidated Fund, and what can members who have declared for an early prorogation do but take this last hurdle blind, and consider what it means at some more convenient opportunity?