N.Z. FINANCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1945, Page 9

N.Z. FINANCES

SURPLUS OF £1,000,000

CONSERVATION OF STERLING

PA. HAMILTON, May 25. A surplus of approximately £1,000,000 in the Conosolidated Fund for the year1 ended March 31 was announced by the Acting Prime Minister (Mr. Nash), this evening. This surplus, he explained, followed previous surpluses for every year since the Labour Government took office in 1935.

Reviewing the finances of the Dominion for the year ended March 31, Mr. Nash said that, with the exception of a slight reduction in the film hire tax and land tax, exery item of taxation showed an increase over the estimates. Though expenditure also exceeded the estimates, the net result would produce a surplus of approximately £1,000,000.

Sums raised for social security by direct taxation since its inception six years ago amount to £71,295,387, while £21,009,367 . from' the Consolidated Fund had been transferred making a total of £92,304,754.

. Summarising war expenses and receipts,. Mr. Nash said that the total receipts since the war began amounted to £524,914,000. Expenditure was £507,012,000, leaving a balance of £17,902,000. Details of the receipts were as follows:—Loans, £230,514,000; taxation, £173,597,000; Consolidated Fund, £26,586,000; miscellaneous, £10,380,000; lend-lease, £83,837,000. Details of expenditure for war purposes included: Pay allowances, accommodation, food, and clothing, £172,597,000; war and other stores, £165,135,000; land, buildings, and ships, £31,233,000; reciprocal aid, reverse lease-lend, £58,174,000; other expenditure, £79,873,000. The. Minister said that the national debt, expressed in New Zealand cur-1 rency, totalled £603,238,411, an increase of £280,999.331 over the 1936' figure of £322,239,000. It should; be noted, he added, that the total volume of the debt appeared greater than the previous published figures by the conversion of the sterling portion of the debt into New ■ Zealand currency. This j added approximately £40,000,000 to j total, though there was no additional debt. Of the increases in the national debt war expenses accounted for £218,752,156, while domestic expenditure accounted for £6^,249,225. I STERLING RESOURCES. As regards sterling funds, the Minister said that on March 31 these funds expressed in New Zealand currency amounted to £62,409,000. "The Government is satisfied that, in view of the extraordinarily large sums now falling due for conversion, it is wise to conserve our sterling resources both in interests, of being able to arrange satisfactory terms of conversion and also to make repayments where this is considered advisable." continued Mr. Nash "Having regard to our debt commitments in forthcoming years, it would be unwise to adopt any policy which would prejudice the conservation of sterling. "Another reason for the need for conserving ■ our sterling resources is the need to make provision now for purchases we will have to make in the future for capital requirements and the replacement of' depleted stocks of consumer goods which we have been unable to buy over the war years."