BUDGET VIEWS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 27, 31 July 1924, Page 4

BUDGET VIEWS

SIX MORE SPEECHES

MR, F. J. ROLLESTON'S CRITICISM

SURPLUSES-. AND THE WAR DEBT.

Tho Financial Debate, was continued in tho House of Representatives yesterday. Sis speeches -were mode, the most interesting being that of ill-. P. J. Kolleston, Heform _ member for Tiraaru, who criticised various aspects of the Budget, and made some, pointed remarks regarding borrowing and taxation. •

The day's discussion was opened by Mr. T. K. Sidey (Dunedin South), who argued that the surplus should really have been shown as £2,250,000. Perhaps the Prime Spnister was reluctant to announce that because of Ids consciousness that it was too big, or lhat it meant that too much had been taken out of tho pockets of the people. He did not want to labour tho poiut, but two years ago the Priino Minister declared that a, Finance Minister should not havo too largo a surplus. Notwithstanding tho increase of £1,200,000 in Customs revenue, the total increase in revenue had been wiped out by an increase in expenditure on annual appropriations. It was because more money had been allocated to permanent appropriations that the Govermnent had been able to claim it had kept expenditure down in other directions. The Minister of Education in his speech, on Tuesday had claimed as a record the fact that the Prime Minister had said that the revenue last year was short of the estimate by £8630. Last year, llu Prime Minister in his estimate of lovenue lor 1923-24 included a sum of £125,000 for national endowment revenue. Having, however, excluded national endowment revenue altogether from his accounts, he ought surely to have deducted from last year's Estimates the £128,000 allowed on that account in ascertaining whether his estimate of revenue had been exceeded or not. This he had failed to do. Deducting £128.000 from the total estimate of £27,969,000, left £27,811,000 as the estimate for 1923-24 without endowment revenue. This, instead of being an over-estimate was an under-estimate of the actual revenue received by £119,370. Further, when thero was added £540,000 of outstanding interest it would be found that instead of over-estimating his revenue by £8630, as stated in the .Budget, the Finance Minister under-estimat-ed it by £659,370. After dealing with the export and import figures, Mr. Sidey stated that it was a striking commentary upon the reduction in the National X>ebt that had been claimed for the past two years, that.the interest and sinking- fund charges were last year greater thau they were two years ago by £147,000, and although the payment of interest showed a small reduction last year of some £26,----000 on the expenditure side, there was over £100,000 less interest on public money on the revenue side after allowing for an amount of £540,000 outstanding. The fact that the Minister was now talking of seeking a reduction in the annual -charges under the funded debt -was an indication that he realised lie had made what might become in a few years a very bad :.-argain. It would depend upon the terms upon which the whole funded debt could be redeemed There was little doubt that the Government had made a bad bargain in the exchange of 5| per cent, debentures for 4-2 per cent, free of income tax. "Mr. Sidey also claimed that insufficient information had been given regarding the charges on the last loan. The Budget had been described as colourless and disappointing, and so it was.

A REFORM CRITIC Mr. F. J. Eolleston (Timaru) said that many of Mr. Sidey's points were uninteresting, and others were such as could only be answered by a Minister. He /■would like to see the mass of figures that came along with the Budget and | f tli6 .public accounts submitted to the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Itepresentatives, thus giving the members a better idea of the country's finances. He commended what had been 1 done in regard to the establisiunent of district Treasury offices, and said it would be well were the same principle applied to the Taxation Department. ! This would tend to keep people up- to tlie mark in the payment of their income taxes.

It seemed to him that they had been leaning too much on t.he accumulated suiplus.es which had been diminishing year by year, and would, perhaps. vanish next year or the year after. He thought each year should be made to stand by itself for finance purposes, and that it would be better not to take the surpluses into account. He suggested that_the real surplus last year was only £387,365, which was an answer to the suggestion that too much had been wrung from the taxpayers, and an answer to the argument that the results of last year justified a proposed remission of £1,000,000 in taxation this year. The accumulated surpluses should have been applied in reducing the War Debt: It ■would bo better now to face the situauf, and make each year stand on its own m respect to finances. The War .Debt should be got rid of as soon as possible m order to try to get back to the gold standard. It behoved us not to ignore the possibility, of a further deflation of prices. The bigger the surplus the better, provided it was understood that that surplus, after payment ot all just outgoings, was applied, not as an excuse for increased expenditure or decreased taxation, but was applied lor War Debt redemption. Until expemhture was brought down there was no justification for reducing taxation With regard to the moratorium, Mr Kolleston. said that as it applied to loans raised before October, 1019, lie did not think there would be difficulty in raising money for businesses; there might be some, difficulty, though, in regard to raising money to meet the unpaid purchase price of land. He did not think, however, that there would be many cases of hardship for those to whom the moratorium applied What was more important, however, was the position of those who had bought land during the boom period. That presented a national problem, because great loss would be suffered if farmers walked off then- and. 'Iho essence of the question was. that some means should be devised by which the land was brought back to its proper productive value. R h M \ been sugegstetl that a board should be S "b up to see that no hardship was done as between buyer and vendor. That mMit be said to be an interference with 7>rivatn contracts, but there was something of more importance than that to consider—the production of the comitrv Alr. Hollcston criticised the delay taking place in regard to advances for housing purposes, and said ho thought it would be better ..if local bodies "or local committees could dcul with housing: applications on the spot. Perhapsdistrict officers of the State AdvancesOlh'ee. could be set up to examine lorn] njiplic-aUous. and aUow houses tv co ui> in miml)ci'!< «(, a liino. The. s.urnhis pj laai j^ iJifltl ij j, a

garded as a windfall. Economy should not be practised -in bad times but when tunes were good, so that adequate provision should be made against possible depressions in the future. When economy was put into practice in times of stress, hardship was inflicted.

THE TAXATION COMMISSION

Mr. H. T. Armstrong (Christchurch East) referred to-the setting up of the laxation Commission, and said it had been done to throw responsibility off larhament. The conclusions arrived at could not have been expected to be any different than they were. The Budget did not explain how many new houses .had been built for the money lent by the ; State Advances Department. Reference had been made by the Prime Minister to the prosperity of the country, but the speaker maintained that the great masses of the people had not shaved in that prosperity. Discussing the .Government's taxation policy, Mr. Armstrong said that he supposed that m putting the further promises of reduction into practice the Government would again reduce the burden upon the wealthy, and shift it on to tho poor. The Government, before it took office, said that unless a non-borrowiiig Government was returned to power tho country would be ruined. The National debt then stood at £80,0Q0,C00. The present "non •borrowing. Government" had increased it to £221,0C0,C00 Mr. G. R. Sykes (Ma.sterton):' "What is the reason for that?"

Mr. Armstrong: "The incompetent I arty that hns . been in charge of the, affairs of the country during lhat period."

_ Mr. Sykes: "Were they responsible for the war?"

Mi-. Armstrong said that hundreds of millions of pounds had been made by the profiteers of the Dominion, backed up by the Government,, during jthe war. IF the Government had had the real interests of the country and the Empire at heart it would "have itaxed war profits to such an extent that our portion of the war debt would have been paid for without tile National Debt being increased by one penny. Dealing with the land question, the speaker said: The Labour Party was the only party that could save the producers of the country from bankruptcy. TRUSTS AND COMBINES

Mr. p. A. do la Perrelle (Awarua) expressed appreciation of the- speech of Mr. -RoDeston, and remarked that it was pleasing to see that he did not allow Reform methods to dominate his principles. He criticised the Government for its neglect of soldier settlers, and in dealing with trusts and com, bines. If the American Government had the courage and pluck to put down combines, the 'Government of .New Zealand should be -able to do likewise. The Minister would b e well advised to make a still further reduction in the construction cost of telephones to the backblocks. He agreed that a liberal sum should bo provided for the maintenance of a second cruiser in Dominion waters. Mr. 0. J. Hawken (Egmont) criticised the Leader of the Opposition for Having gone into a discussion on accountancy in his speech, which was altogether out of place. Surely Mr.-Wil-ford could haVe taken a broader view. Air. R. Masters (Stratford); "You expected something else." Mr. Hawken said he thought that when the Dominion Revaluation Board finished its work, very little more would be heard about the returned soldiers and -their troubles.' He believed they had nearly reached the end of tho urgent time for providing houses. Tho Leader of the Opposition : "Oh, dear!"

Mr. Hawken thought the Minister of Education was entitled to credit for improving the system as- well as ho had done, considering" the many calls on the public purse. He defended the Government s activities in regard to railways, public works, and hydro-electric works, and thought there was very little to complain of in the way of providing telephonic facilities in the backblocks! A great deal more money was required to finance the fanners. Under some agricultural banking system the dairy farmer would receive great benefits. Mr. Hawken urged that more should bt done in afforestation, and said that there, was enough land in the country for everybody. The Bridget redounded to the credit of the Minister of Finance. EDUCATION MATTERS Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) urged that better provision should be made for accommodating school children. He believed in loyalty, but the children should be trained, to become loyal »to their schools, and that could only be done by seeing that the schools were fit places wherein to educate the children He advocated compulsory medical and den-, tal inspection in the schools. He was glad to see that the "School Journal" was becoming less jingoistic, and suggested that its use should be extended so that it should become more in the nature of a school reader. Mr. Lee dealt with other aspects of education, and concluded by expressing the opinion that nothing could stop the onward march of.Labour.

On the motion of Mr. J. Edie •(Clutha) une t ii deS ep^ &; ned at 10- 27 p-m