HIGH PRAISE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 18 July 1923, Page 7

HIGH PRAISE.

"N.Z. AN EXAMPLE."

ADMINISTRATION OF FINANCES. SYDNEY PRESS COMMENT. I ~; "New Zealand has set an example which is worth copying, her rulers having displayed that courage that is essential to lift the Dominion from the Z' financial slough into which the war and , the inflation, of currency has plunged her." In. these terms the Sydney Morning I Herald, in a leading article published x the morning after the presentation of . the New Zealand Financial Statement, •which was given much publicity in the I Australian metropolitan newspapers, compared the financial administration '. of the State of New South Wales 'with : that of the Dominion of New Zealand, whose populations are almost equal. | On Wednesday of last week, two announcements appeared in the Sydney • Press." One was that the State Trea- ; surer was able to show a surplus of £800,000; thft other,- that the Prime.. Minister of the Dominion wns able to show a surplus,, of £1.315.683 revenue over expenditure. The hnppy result ' wns achieved in almost similar method. , "The general result was achieved principally by .saving in the Government Departments," says the Herald, where . the amount of outsm was more than a .'. million less than tho expenditure for j the previous financial year, and by r .keeping the oosts- of the State's bnsi- ! ness undertakings 'rlo-wri some £800.000 below thos^ of 1921-22. The relative saving in the Government Departments was not as great as appears on the figures, but it was sufficient to pjvq. a considerable measure of satisfaction, I and to encourage the hope that the j process of parinjr down thus begun will b« continued until it reaches the desir- j ed proportion. The figures fo-i* the yonr sh^w. of course, the benefit derived by the Treasurer from the decrease ] in the basic wa^e. In the now current ' ' year (commencing July 1), no further easement, from that source is to he ' loojced for, but rather.a 'heavier bill, i "However, there . arc other ways in ■ T.hieh expenditure might be brought h-ick to n.n amount more reasonable for ' the people to have to pay. and it is far ■ ihn Government to exploit «very possible channel of economy. In this r*>- j gnrd. New Zealand has Wt an example which is worth copying, her rulers hay- : ing dispjp.yprl T he cou^ajeje that is esspii+.jj,l to lift the Dominion from the fi"anoi.nl slough into which tho war and the inflation of cu'rencv had plunged her. There is need in Austrft-lia for n > similar and singleness of purpose." f ?_ ]