DOMINION FINANCE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 2 November 1926, Page 5

DOMINION FINANCE

LATEST RETURNS. SIX MONTHS’ REVENUE INCREASE IN EXPENDITURE (BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 1. The public .accounts for the quarter ended September 30 appear in the Supplementary Gazette, the following being .the official summary issued by the Treasury: “The total revenue received for the six months amounted to £9,801,547. For the .same six months of last year after excluding the railway account, the revenue was £8,647,356, so that the first half of the financial year for 1926 shows an increase in revenue of £1,154,191 oyer the same period last year. Included in the current halfyear's. revenue, however, -are the following items, which were not received during the first half-year of 1925: Interest on railways capital liability, £1,010,377; interest on the public debt redemption fund, £136,812; total, £1,147,189. The increase over last year is therefore nominal. The principal increases are: Customs, £48,484; Post and Telegraph, £150,117; Income Tax, £143,501; departmental receipts, £40,915. The principal decreases are; stamp and death duties, £64,849; land tax, £27,567; .interest on public moneys, £2.78,839. • The total expenditure on permanent charge® was £6,683,615 ; annual appropriations (excluding railways expenditure) £4,600,385; a total of £11,284,000, as) against a total) for the first six months' of last year as follows: Permanent charges, £5,837,793; annual appropriations (excluding railway expenditure), £4,298,245; total, £10,136.038. This shows an increase in permanent charges of £845,822, and iu annual appropriations of £302,14Q, making 1 a total of £1,147,962, hut from this must be deducted for comparative purposes payments amounting to £566.o°o made in the second half of 1925-26.

The principal increases in the permanent charges are: Interest, £167,903; Repayment of Public Debt Act. 1925, £390,000; under special Acts, £277,830. Under the annual appropriations the principal increases are : Vote .for legislative departments, £32.149; Department of Affairs, £52,196) Printing and Stationery Department, £25,619; naval defence, £34,148; defence, £24,095; Customs, £54,025; Department of Education. £73,409. The change in accounting brought about by the two-important policy Acts, the Railways Amendment Act, 1925, and the Public Debt Repayment Act, 1925. do not enable periodic comparisons between 1925-26 and 1926-27 to be easily .made, and a sure .survey in simple form) is only possible ‘at the close of the year.