Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1937.

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 120, 17 November 1937, Page 12

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1937.

BIG SPENDING

The Finance Bill introduced in the House of Representatives last night contains authority to borrow £6,000,000 for general public works and £2,000,000 for highways. This does not mean that the whole of the money will be borrowed and spent this year. With main highways it may be spread over a year or two. Nor does it mean that £8,000,000 is the limit of Government borrowing tliis year. There are unexpired loan authorisations which may be used both for general purposes and special accounts. To discover the exact position and the Government's intentions is difficult; and the Public Works Statement presented yesterday does not throw a great deal of light on the subject. From the statement it is plain that expenditure has been heavy in the past year, and will be heavier still.in the future. But just how heavy one cannot say. The Budget showed a contemplated expenditure on public works of £17,367,000. This included some operations not under the Public Works Department. It was not stated, however, how much of the money for this programme was to come from revenue, how much from loans, and how much from credit issues. The only indication of the source of the money was the statement that after allowing for revenues accruing to the Main Highways, Electric Supply, and other accounts, •it was estimated that the balances carried forward on April 1 and amounts received for investment from the Post Office Savings Bank and other departmental sources would be sufficient.

We think that more information than this should be forthcoming. The Public Works Statement gives more but not enough. Some readers may think it gives too much, because what it states in one part is seemingly contradictory of what is set but in another place. There is unlikely to be an actual contradiction; but the activities on public works are numerous and intricate, and a statement of the finances involved is intricate too. For example, the Minister of Public Works in one place enumerates the revenues to be used: £1,150.000 from the Consolidated Fund for maintenance of public works and services; £2,572,000 from Main Highways Revenue; £745,000 from the Electric Supply Account; and £567,500 from general revenue ("apparently distinct from the Consolidated Fund). It is added: "Of the.total expenditure under my control out of the Public Works Fund and other accounts of £9,799,000, a-sum of £3,884,500 will therefore be provided from revenue, representing approximately 40 per cent." This is valuable information. When expenditure is so heavy, and some of the works undertaken have a doubtful productive worth, it is important to know how much is being met from current revenue and how much from loan or credit.

The information, nevertheless, is not complete. Sixty per cent of £9,799,000, or £5,914,500, is to be a charge on loan or credit, but the Budget shows a total expenditure, not of £9,799,000, but of £17,367,000. And immediately following the Public Works Minister's list of revenue contributions is a table setting out the "proposed expenditure from loanmoneys on public works for 1937----38." This table is added up to £10,440,957. This is from loan, as compared with the total expenditure (loan and revenue) of £9,799,000 previously given and the Budget total of £17,367,000. In yet another place a total of £13,682,957 is reached by adding the estimated net expenditure of the General Purposes Account to £1,370,000 from the Electric Supply Account, and £4,478,000 from the Main Highways Account. There are other seeming discrepancies, but we have quoted sufficient to show how the layman may be confused in trying to unravel the tangle. It is not suggested that these apparently contradictory statements and totals cannot be reconciled, or that anything is purposely concealed. But so much hinges on the finances of public works that an effort should be made to clarify them so that even the wayfaring man may understand them. The Minister of Public Works is a man of direct methods, and the public would be in his debt if he would set out the accounts and proposals so that people as direct as he is may see what is intended. There is even more need for this now than formerly for new sources of revenue or credit come into the accounts. The Employment Promotion Fund is used and to what extent should be clearly shown, so that the public may be assured that this fund is not being made an indirect support of the Public Works Fund. Credit issues were to be used; and the public should know exactly how far this is being done. The Minister of Finance in his 1936 Budget acknowledged that all works had not similar productive \vorth and for this reason proposed that some, which would yield no immediate or direct return, should not be chargeable on loans. This was a sensible decision and we should be told how far it is being followed. As it is, the layman cannot discover even the total of proposed expenditure, or how much is from loan and how much from revenue, or' how the loan and revenue moneys are allocated to works of various classes—railways, roads, buildings, and so on. Information is given but it is not complete. Posrfbly the statement follows the

lines of previous Public Works Statements which were always more or less involved. But that does not mean that a change cannot be made. There is no reason to give an answer like that of Mr. Winston Churchill when, asked for a simplification of legal terminology in the statutes he replied that the time-honoured jargon and rigmarole of an honourable profession were necessary to exactitude of expression. Here exactitude of expression is necessary but it should": not obscure meaning. The facts are that the Minister of Public Works is carrying out a huge programme with his characteristic energy. He has spent £500,000 dn machinery and is employing 19,000 men who are earning good money. That he is getting results is not denied; but the big question is whether the works themselves will be fully worth the money and labour put into their prosecu-, tion. Plain financial statements are necessary to assist the public to form an intelligent opinion.