BUDGET CRITICISED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 26, 30 July 1924, Page 4

BUDGET CRITICISED

"INACCURACIES AND MISREPRESENTATION"

MR. WILFORD'S ATTACK

FINANCIAL DEBATE OPENS.

The debate upon the Budget and the Financial Statement presented by the Finance Minister last -week was commenced in the House of Representatives last night. Two speakers held the floor for an hour each—the Leader of the Opposition and the Minister of Education.

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. T. M. Wilford) criticised the Budget as cm. of inaccuracy and misrepresentation. In some cases statements made by the Finance Minister in his statement were contradicted by figures in the public accounts, which were certified to by the Auditor-General, and also by references an the Budget itself. It was a colourless Budget, no doubt due to the fact that the_ Government had no denned policy. The finances revealed a condition that would . surprise the public when they, realised the significance of tlnngs. Tho country was. not being governed by the Reform Party, but by Commission'; all tho Commissions set up recently had been appointed to enable the Government.to escape its responsibilities.

Mr. W.lford denied that the Government had made a net investment proht, cm 5 per cent. British war loan stock, as stated in the Budget, and quoted from the Auditor-General's report in support of his statement. Mr. Massey £ fifpmn'l^ U, le sUrPlus amounted to fnv'n f^ °d- d' M hehad neglected to saj that the interest for last jw on the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Account Had not been paid. A sum of £540 000 wonld have to 'be found tnis year to meet that, and the total account to be met in connection with the finances of discharged soldiers' settlement this year would amount to no less than £1,430,- - f'; .W'WPKJ contended that the amount of loans paid off during the perand not £8,000,000, as declared by the Finance Minister. The d'ebt^a I™ 81™, Sakl that the ™blic but fl> v A«™*e* by £101.161, lAd t^L Audl, torf «f«al showed that it ±^,663,037. How could Mr. Massev ex Plain such an astounding difference' -He a so asked why tile sum of £375 000 been left out of the public accounts. AN UNRELIABLE DOCUMENT -No reliance could be placed on the SfuifT' 8' saii Wil"% Fxn °a lnaccurac 'es. Take tho War Expenses Account. It was shown under aa- leßd, lnS as £2,212,840, but the, sir V™-"- I'>■-"?" could not be found in it. The House and the t, gf r" S lnvestra°nta, because \«Hif r f U' es aild tllose of the -Auditor-General were at variance. Re-dl^-S le l ,Btat? 1 A I d'nnces Department. to eh) 1?! ra' d he llad bee» u»^'° to.check the. figures of the investments ' as the information he had asked Won the point had not been' supplied The Budget did not show clearly the total capital value of tho Railways Demrt K.ent, and it was impossible there fore, to track the Finance Mi Lt el " down, because of his continual c" tratu Z stat, ei?, ellts-., The Budget said the value of the railways was £48,265----at £$i RFWCar^° ok plaoed the-value ™* t' i' t ;, a> capital vnlue could ot be what the Finance Minister said it was if the other figures quoted as to thel interest earned were correct. Immigration was shown in the Budget as one of the assets against the debt oi this country, and was set down at a value of £2,639,075. "I would be very glad if the Minister in Charge of Immigration would tell'us how he gets W that figure," said Mr. Wilford "I dont know whether he includes the dead, the old age pensioners, etc. as assets. I don't know whether he incJudes all the immigrants that have come to this country." One of the assets against the debt was also shown as tho Samoan estates, of an estimated value of half a million pounds. A loan however, had been granted to Samoa amounting to £95,000, and lie would like to know whether or not that loan had been made on the security of the socalled value of the Samoa estates

THE DOMINION'S BATTLESHIP

Mr. Wilford proceeded to refer to the funding of the. Public Debt, and quoted figures to show that no reduction in the rate of interest had been made by the country m connection with the co"st of tli -r^T Zealand- The battleship £983,131 and £832,036, which had not AcToMwoVi In th ° Naval Defence Act of 1909 there was a wise provision t at 4 per cent., on the capital cost of the ship-should be paid to the Public iiustee every year as a sinking fund f m i 8mt (!f pIKUIm WSS "° less a sum m the Public Trust Office for the tribntfn 't / bUt m that >'eaL- the conS" 10"° 4 Per cent, to the Public no inn.7 i^T*?' aud from thafc time> X? n yr a hccn Paid u»tlei> ««e UHice by way of sinking fund. If M lo 4. of the b^ttl" '"" £^ 0f the c"Pital cost wis tLt fh , ?•> lhe P'-^ent position ncfudin^ t< aI ? St t0 the Dominion, including interest, for the New Ze-ilinrl 170^^- CO4;SS' -" pointhad to n^n 1" ai dd, ltKm the D«"«nion Su?. f7 A^a «~-oftho Old "ILLUSORY DISCREPANCIES"

•IK, „i ii t, '' l' oL'n w invstory iw Uio JJoauuioa. . Full iuformatioa was

given m the Budget regarding the soldier settlement figures, and the only thing li 3 could say was that Mr. Wilfovd had not come across it. The reduction 111 capital values of soldiers' settlements totalled £541,031. and the reduction of mortgages totalled 5289,263. Up to date, the total reductions in half tho cases, which were the subject of applications! amounted to £830,327. In addition, tho Dominion Revaluation Board had made liberal concessions in the way of postponement of rent, interest, and instalments, and, in certain cases, had remitted rent or interest; as tho case might cii ■?. Bucl-? efc showed that the credit ot the Dominion was sound, and surely the Government was.not to be' criticised for having saved expenditure to the extent of over £1.530,000. All Mr. Wilford had done was to try to find someI -tiling wrong with tho arithmetic of the i Budget, and something better was sure- I 1 I™}' 1'I }' oi him- Notwithstanding what Mr. Wilford had said, the National Debt had been considerably reduced, and tiie VVav Debt had been reduced by 4A milhon pounds in three years. Despite borrowing, the National Debt was nearly £300,000 less than it. was two years ago. ihe Budget promised a remission ot a million pounds in taxation. The Leader of the Opposition had not faced the brick wall of facts disclosed by the Budget. New Zealand, relatively s'peakiii,g, was probably in the strongest financial position of any of tho Dominions Jir. rtilford had complained that tiro Budget was colourless,, and disclosed no policy. But was it necessary to disclose policy in a Budget when that had already been done in the Speech from the Throne? (Liberal laughter.) There was enough policy in the Speech to keep the House busy for three months. CARE IN BORROWING It had to be remembered that the Government had been able to reduce taxation very considerably, and that there was a promise of a further reduction. ...It was clear that next' year the income tax would not be much more than half what it was three v'ears ago .that was, perhaps, a record for the Dominions. The Government, he maintained, had behind it a record of economy and progress. He agreed that tho greatest care would have to be exercised m regard to borrowing, and he declared mat local bodies wore borrowing too freply. What had carried us through our financial troubles up to the present was the high prices obtained for our primary products. The increase in values had been out of all proportion to the increase in volume of our exports, it was the export value and not the quantity of exports which was the main contributing factor to the success of tins year's finances.

Another matter demanding attention was.-.the growth in the size of the Civil .-•ervice, which now employed 5' 849 people, receiving a total of £12,097 000 m salaries per year. That meant that there were something over 200,000 people depending on money from the State Jivery application for increasing the Mr. Wilford had spoken" with two voices jvlien _ dealing with finance. He wanted the cuts restored to the Civil Service which would mean an outlay of fi1.240.000, and he had a very ambitious piogramme demanding more money for various things. One was staggered to think what W ould happen to the coun try if he had control of the purse strings to carry out his programme: Mr i-arr proceeded to quote what Mr. Wiltord had said in public speeches re»ard™S *he Pnme Minister and borrowing but he himself would have to borrow millions to carry out the policy which .he advocated. He thus spoke with two voices. Mr. Wilford had gone aronrfd the country denouncing the policy which ho had supported in the House in 1919.

"A SNARE AND A DELUSION" The agricultural hank suggested by the Leader 0 the Opposition was I snare and a delusion. He criticised in detail the terms which Mr. Wilford suggested in his proposals for running tmj biink, and said that to be a success, the interest charge would have to be 6 per cent lor it was proposed to put capital could II ln, sUt"tion at 5i cent, >How could the bank compete in.such circimi Mr. Parr said that had it not been for the courageous policy of the banl-s thl Xl- nJ f 3° Bnd P°licy- The State JJank had not done any good for \ a <s mm nlnw g?rd to education, Mr Parr s-,,Vl went out in sallies l SfteVeS' IT KV^nani^t?^ onAth 9 e 30mS tof df lr te T - I fo-ed Punedin South) Bntil \ 3 l p- g;