Holland Replies To Reply By Minister

Northern Advocate, 4 June 1947, Page 4

Holland Replies To Reply By Minister

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

“Mr Nordmeyer, with aii his clever twisting of figures, has not disproved a single figure I used in my analysis.

“All he has done is to twist the figures to make them appear what they are not,” said the Leader - of the Opposition (Mr Holland) today, replying to an answer to his analysis of the national accounts made by the acting Minister of Finance (Mr Nordmeyer).

“It would be quite impossible for the public to follow any controversy on the country's finances without having before them the original figures which very few people will have retained,” Mr Holland said. “Someone has said that it is possible to do anything with figures and Mr Nordmeyer has proved the truth of that statement in his reply to my original analysis of the national accounts.

“HUGE SURPLUS” “There has been a huge surplus on the year’s operations which, when added to 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, and 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 fiinally 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 Nordmeyer is so expert in creating, but it does not alter the fact that consolidation of the 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 Nordmeyer saying that no taxation is credited to the War Expenses Account, as he stated himself that a sum of £3,000,000 was transferred to that account from the * Consolidated Fund, which obtains its revenue from taxation.

“My view is tha„ surpluses in all three accounts should be added together to show the true position of the year’s operations, whereas Mr Nordmeyer says ,that it is sufficient to disclose a surplus in only one account — the Consolidated Fund.

“The third point of difference is that I hold that in presenting 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 it gives a true state of the accounts at the end of the year, wheras Mr Nordmeyer prefers to say nothing about huge balances brought forward.”