NATIONAL LEADER REJECTS MINISTER’S READING OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Evening Star, Issue 26118, 4 June 1947, Page 6

NATIONAL LEADER REJECTS MINISTER’S READING OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Jane 4. “ Mr Nordmeyer, with all his clever twisting of figures, has not disproved ’a single figure 1 used in my analysis. All lie has done is to twist the figures to make them appear what they are not,” said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland to-day, replying to the answer to his analysis of the national accounts made by the Acting Minister of Finance, Hon. A. H. Nordineyer. “ It would he quite impossible for the public to follow any controversy on the country’s finance without having before them the original figures, which very few people will have retained,” Mr Holland continued. “ Someone has said that it is possible to do anything with figures, and Mr Nordineyer has proved the truth of that statement lii his reply to my original analysis of the national accounts. There has been a huge surplus on the year’s operations which, when added to the balances brought forward at the beginning of the year, makes an enormous total. “ The transfer of £18,000,000 from the Consolidated Fund to the Social Security Account, the transfer of a further £3,000,000 from the Consolidated Fund to the War Expenses Account, which started the year with over £11,000,000 in hand, and, finally, the payment from the War Expenses Account of £12,500,000 to Britain, which had not been even mentioned in the Budget, all add to the confusion which Mr Nordineyer is so expert in creating. But it does not alter the fact that the consolidation of three main public accounts finished up the financial year with cash actually in hand many millions of pounds in excess of what the Minister wishes the public to believe.” “ It is no use Mr Nordineyer saying that no taxation is credited to the War Expenses Account, as he stated himself that the sum of £3,000,000 was transferred to that account from the Consolidated Fund, which obtains its revenue from taxation. My view is that the surpluses in all three .accounts should be adde.d together to show the true position of the year’s operations, whereas Mr Nordmeyer says that it is sufficient to disclose the surplus in only one account—the Consolidated Fund.

“ A third point of difference is that I hold that, in presenting the accounts, the balance brought forward at the beginning of the year should be clearly shown, and when added to the surplus on the year’s operations, gives the true state of the accounts at the end of the year, whereas Mr Nordmeyer prefers to say nothing about the huge balances brought forward.” [Mr Nordmeyer’s statement is given on page B.]