PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 8

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

(By "Taxpayer.")

CONSOLIDATED FUND

HOW MONEY COMES & GOES

"The Ordinary Kevenue Account, of the Consolidated . Fund," the Government Statistician tells the public in the recently-issued Official Year Book, "covers the ordinary revenue and expenditure of the General Government, apart, that is, from capital items, comjmercial and special undertakings, advances, and so forth." "Until recent years," this authority adds, "its operations afforded an excellent comparison of State revenue and expenditure from year to year; but changes in system during the last few years have largely destroyed the comparability of the figures." For this destruction, it is scarcely necessary to say, the Government Statistician is in no way responsible. Nor is the Controller and Auditor-General. It is the work of tho Treasury, where Ministers of Finance, as they coino and go, reign supreme. ,

The most noteworthy of these changes, it seems, came into operation from the beginning of tho financial year 1925-26, when the railway revenue and expenditure were removed from tho Consolidated Fund and placed in a separate account styled the Working Kail ways Account, from which the Consolidated Fund received in each of the four financial years 1925-20 to 1928----29 an amount to cover interest ont railway capital liability, while the Consolidated Fund, iii turn, paid to the Working Railway Account an amount sufficient to make good tho losses onisolated sections and branch lines. Then the Finance Act of 1929, with the advent of a now Ministry, reduced by £8,100,000 the amount on which interest; was to bo met by tho working railways, and discontinued the subsidy to isolated sections and branch lilies. KEVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. Legislation of a similar character appears to have revolutionised the finance of the Post and Telegraph Department. From the beginning of 1928----29 the revenue and expenditure of this department, according to the Government Statistician's statement, "was placed quite outside of tho orbit of the public accounts." "In place of the revenue of the Post and Telegraph Department," it is explained, "the Comsolidated Fund now receives merely an amount to cover interest on capital liability, while there is now no Consolidated Fund item of expenditure corresponding to that of the Post. and Telegraph Department in 1927-28, and in previous years." In face of these facts the Statistician tells a bewildered public that "in any comparison of Consolidated Fund revenue and expenditure over a series of years it is desirable to omit railways and postal items altogether! Following this advice, omitting, that is, the railway and postal figures, one obtains the following summary of the revenue and expenditure of the. Consolidated Fund during the last ten years:—

Those "ailjusted" figures, the Statistican states, "give a good comparison of revenue and expenditure respectively over tho period, showing an increase of £2,5(51,581 in the revenue and an incre.iso of £0,146,285 in the expenditure." He reminds his readers that there were deficits 'in the Consolidated Fund in 1922 and in 1929, the only unfortunate happenings of the kind since 1888, when Sir Harry Atkinson was Prime Minister. NEED FOR REVISION. All this is interesting and useful information and the taxpayers—meaning all the people—again are indebted to the Government Statistician for having thrown light upon a very perplexing position. There is a feeling abroad, however, that nine-tenths of the members of the present House ,of Eepresentatives are but poorly informed in regard to the finances of tho country and that in ' this respect the community is in the hands of changing Ministries, more or less dependent upon the advice of officials, who, while excellent Public servants in their own sphere, should not be saddled with responsibilities belonging to the public's direct representatives.

. It has been suggested by business men of high repute that by way of improving the Dominion's system of account keeping, the Controller and Auditor-General should be clothed with more extended authority and required to submit to Parliament each year an. independent review of the country's financial position. Perhaps even more useful than this would be insistence on the part of every electorate in the country that its representative in Parliament was familiar with the public accounts.

VTear. 1020 I 921 1922 102.1 1924 192.1 1920 1027 192S 1929 ltovenue. , £ 18,278,700 2l.863.90r 18.695,291 18,275,8411S,41S,229 19.208,315 20,010,908 20,211,:!SS l!l,06li.2<M 20,810,241 Expenditure. Surplus. £. G 17,554,005 ■ 2,290,810 19,209,359 6,192,231 19,541,910 d39,S31 19,32G,12S l,315,0S3 19,000,480 . 1,812,365 19,720,484 1,243,800. 2l,094,0."'l 1;155,679 23,121.7:11 - 5S7.142 22.459.579 179,075 23,080,330 577,252