A CALL FOR THE FACTS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 48, 25 August 1945, Page 6

A CALL FOR THE FACTS

Since the Minister of Finance presented his revised Budget estimates questions have been raised whether the country and Parliament have been given a correct picture of New Zealand's financial requirements for the current year. The further the debate on the Financial Statement goes the clearer it becomes that members of Parliament are more or less beating the air because of the paucity of the information given them by Mr. Nash and the consequent uncertainty about the extent of the country's commitments. There has, for instance, been no satisfactory explanation of why it is necessary to provide £18,000,000 this year to meet gratuity payments when the Government has announced that it is proposed to spread the payments over a period of years. Then, too, there is the provision for meeting the cost of reverse lend-lease. If, as is indicated in the cabled news today, lend-lease is to be discontinued, it seems obvious that a great part of the estimated expenditure under this heading will not be required. These and other features of the revised Budget call for an immediate and full explanation on the part of the Minister of Finance. Rightly or wrongly, the public have been left with an impression that the Government is budgeting in such a way that it will be assured of a substantial surplus at the end of the financial1 year, leaving the way clear for spectacular concessions next year. If this is not so. and the expenditure budgeted for is really needed, then Mr. Nash should lose no time in saying so and in explaining in detail why the money is required. Unless such sn explanation is quickly given, members of Parliament will be at^a serious disadvantage in discussing the Government's financial proposals and will, in a large measure, be wasting their own and the country's time.