PUBLIC EXPENDITURE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 8

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE

WHAT HAPPENED IN 1921

NEEDED NOW

(By Taxpayers' Federation.)

With, a session of Parliament approaching, and the closo of the financial year at hand it may not be. amiss to marshal afresh tho figures which record the growth of expenditure in the public Departments since tho beginning of the Great "War. These figures may not exactly agree with tho roeords of the Treasury, and those dealing with tho Railway Department, and the Post and Telegraph Department, as tho Government Statistician has explained, being affected by changes in methods of accounting, are only approximately correct. The figures refer to expenditure from revenue only, no account being taken of loan moneys belonging to any Department, and show •the following comparisons:-—

To a very largo extent the cost of the war is responsible for the increased expenditure per head of population, but that it is not responsible for the whole of it is shown by the following figures, permanent expenditure being attached to war and ' annual expenditure to other purposes. ■ \

In November, 1921, a very representative deputation waited upon the Eight Hon. \V. F. Massey, then Prime Minister, with an urgent appeal to the effect that he would take steps to substantially reduce the annual expenditure, which at that time, in the opinion of the deputation, had reached alarming dimensions. Mr. Massey, impressed by the deputation's representations, promptly set about the task imposed upon him, and as a result in 1923' taxation was reduced by £.1,964,----970, in 1924 by £1,980,725, and in 1925 by £829,530, a total reduction of no less than £4,775,225. Then Mr. Massey passed away. What has happened since is shown by the figures already quoted. The principal increases in departmental expenditure for tho years ,1926, 3927, 1928, and 1929 were as follows:— Legislative Department, - £121,000; Prime Minister's Department, £28,----000; Stamp Duty Department, £69,000; Native Department, £9000; Cook Island Department, £67,000; Prisons Department, £29,000; Police . Department, £83,000; Pensions- Department, £313,000; Internal Affairs Department, £264,000; Mental Hospital Department, £148,000; Public Health Department, £84,000; ]oefeueo and Naval Department, £1,202,000; Labour Departniont, £40,000; Lands and Survey Department, £40,000; Agriculture Da partment, £410,000; Tourist Department, £40,000; Education Department, £841,000; total, £3,588,000.

Of course, everyone knows that during the period under review there havebeen exceptional demands upon the Government for assistance to soldier settlers, for the relief of unemployed, for the provision of endless social services, for new schools, for larger hospitals, for agricultural colleges, for increased pensions, for higher salaries in the Civil Service, and even for increased honoraria for members of both Houses of Parliament. No doubt it is difficult to resist these demands, somo of them being well grounded and all of them presented with more or less plausibility; but, again, the public expenditure is mounting up apace, and it behoves ever, member of Parliament^ irrespective of party leanings, to be an "Independent,' 1 as Mr. Massey was in tho last three years of his administration, in seeing that the taxpayers— which means every member ( of the community—are not unnecessarily burdened. . .

Expenditure Mean per head of I'ear. Expenditure, population, population. £ £ s. d. 1914 .. 11,825,864 1,125,628' 10 10 1 1917 .. 14,038,770 1,149,225 12 4 7 L921 .. 28,128,730 1,252,206 ' 22 9 3 192G .. 30,038,511 1,392,073. 2111 7 L5I28 ■ .. 3,1,030,027 1,443,323 21 17 7 L929 .. 33,320,047 1,468,328 22 10 J (Esllmated)

Permauent ,Pcr Per appro- Popu. head per- head i'ear. propriation. latlon. manent. annual & £ s. d. ■£. s. d. 1814 4,289,018 1,125,823 . 3 16 2 6 13 11 1921 12 234,725 1.252.20B 9 15 5 12 13 10 1920 13,536,928 1,392,073 9 14 2 1113 i 1929 15,009,581 1,468,328 10 4 5 12 12 2