BUDGET SURPLUS.

Northern Advocate, 26 June 1924, Page 6

BUDGET SURPLUS.

j ALLEGED CONCEALMENT. | AN ACCUSATIVE VOICE. WELLINGTON, This Day. An allegation that Mr Massey, as Minister of Finance, had hidden a sum of £600,000 in public accounts in order to reduce the amount of his published surplus, was made my Mr R. Mclveer., M.P., when speaking at Wellington South. The Premier declines to make a reply at present, but proposes to derJ with the in Parliament. '' I j believe," said Mr McKeen, ' 1 that Mr | Massey, as Finance Minister of this I Dominion, knows what the position is. | As a matter of fact Labour members stated that we ought to have a surplus j of' about £3,000,000. We 'have studied tlio accounts. Mr Massey says the surplus is £1,800,000; Labour says it is about £3,000,000. This wants explaining by the Massey Governmnent. Last year the interest on public moneys amounted to £1,302,067. This year interest on public moneys is £645,891. Now, where is the difference of £600,000? This wants to be explained. Besides, we have the National Endowment revenue, which last year wa? shown as £05,156, but this year it is nil. WJhy this difference? Where has £600,000 gone to? I contend that it is not sufficient for Mr Massey to say that it has been utilised in another account. If he does say that he has to show that in his accounts, because in the first place that £600,000 must first be shown on the accounts of the Department as a debit, and then when it is disbursed, as an expendituse. I venture to say this, that that £300,000 is not disclosed because of Labour's prophecy of a £3,000,000 surplus.

"I would like to say hard things about this particular subject, because I feel that it is not just; it is not honest. There is something that wants explaining, and it has not been explained because the money has been utilised for we don't know what. That item is hidden somewhere. If it is here the surplus to-day would be £2,400,000. Here we have an account showing a reduction of practically half this year, and another account showing practically no revenue whatever, and this while our State servants from one end of New Zealand to the other are discontented because of the low standard of living that they hav-e at the present moment."