WELLINGTON TOPICS

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 127, 1 June 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE DOMINION'S FINANCE

UNSATISFIED CURIOSITY.

(Special Correspondent.) . WELLINGTON, May 31. So far the Minister of Finance has done nothing to elucidate the bare I statement of the public accounts, pub- ; lished in the Gazette last week. The I official returns simply gave tlie figures for the last quarter of the financial year ended March 31st and it was the intelligent reporter that added them to the returns of the previous three Quarters and presented them as the totals for, the year. Perhaps former Ministers had led the public to expect too much by tacking! brief, financial statements on to the ; . quarterly returns and the ''annual > totals, but tile practice was appreciated by those who took an interest in the public accounts and naturally its discontinuance is occasioning some comment. Mi* Massey has indicated plainly enough, however, that the revenue for the year was entirely satisfactory ! and ' that the expenditure was not restricted for the purpose of swelling.-the surplus.

LOANS AND TAXATION

•Ihrt; it ; is plain enough that the surplus—or, more correctly-, the amount by which the revenue exceeded the expenditure—has been' fully anticipated by commitments,, and that ,ii is only, on paper the Bdminiort is in the'comfortable posir tion of having a ( million or two in hand towards -the'needs of the,new year. The Treasury is practically empty, as Ministers have'been telling the public in more or less blunt terms during ttio last two or three months, and a considerable loan and increased' taxation are inevitable. These are the burdens which.faced both parties at the general election, i and "now go far to explain ,the ' attittude. of the leader of the Liberal Opposition, the. Hon. W; D. S. Mac Donald, in desiring to help ; and not to hinder Mr Massey and his colleagues in solving j the difficult problems that confront them.- This will remove the j differences of opinion between /the parties, but it probably will considerably modify party asperity during the approaching session.

THE RAILWAY DISPUTE.

One result of the imfoWunate delay ia proceeding with the hearing of thfe dispute the Railway Debarkment and the members of the.Locomotive branch of the service is the withdrawal of Mr W. J>: Hupt, tlie managing director of Messrs fright, Stephenson, and Co., from the representation of the men on the specia. conciliation committee that was set up under the agreement which ended the recent crisis. ; Mr Hunt , has very special personal and business qualifications for the task he had undertaken with the warm approval of both parties, but his" impending departure for' England has compelled his retirement from -the committee. His place will be taken by Mr J. T. Martin, a member of, the-same .firm, than whom no beter substitute could be found; but the loss of Mr Hunt s experience in dealing with such matters is much to be regretted. It is hoped the hearing will begin tins week.

EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRA-

TION

Some rather unpleasant developments in cbnnection with the emigration policy of the Imperial Government have come under public notice lately. At a , meeting of the AVar Assistance Committee last week a case was reported ijl which a; woman with five young children, and another child expected shortly, had been sent out from Home in advance of her husband to the care of a relative here. The relative had received, them with all the' hospitality her means and accommodation would permit, but these were quite inadequate for the decent maintenance of such a family. The outcome, of course, was an appeal for assistance, which will have to be provided by the -State or by one of the local authorities till the husband and father arrives to take1 up his responsibilities^. Other cases of the .same kind are known to exist, and representations are being made to the Government on the subject.