WAR EXPENSES ACCOUNT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 25 June 1943, Page 4

WAR EXPENSES ACCOUNT

USED FOR PROVIDING SUBSIDIES "MERE QUIBBLING,” SAYS MINISTER (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) Wellington, This Da> The complaint that the War ExpenseAccount had been drawn upon for the purpose of providing £2,300,000 for sub sidies, was merely quibbling, said the Minister of Health, Mr A. H. Nordmeyer, in his Eudget Speech in the House of Representatives last night. Thr plain fact was. he said, that a much stronger case could be made out* in the opposite direction, because many of the things paid for directly out of the Consolidated Fund were a legitimate charge upon the War Expenses Account. Of the amount of £2,300.000, said the Minister. £1.125,000 was required in keep farmers’ costs down as Jar as fertilisers were concerned, and the rest was for subsidies in other direct ion rA suggestion had been made that there was something vastly improper in making those subsidies a charge upon the War Expenses Account, but he thought that a strong case could be made out that some Of tlie charges borne by the Consolidated Fund should be charged on the War Expenses Account. For instance, the additional costs of providing war pensions would be borne by the Consolidated Fund and so were al! additional interest payments in respect of war loans. The Opposition had not objected when sources of revenue, previously used to build up the Consolidated Fund were used for the benefit of the War Expenses Account and as examples of this, the Minister quoted death, estate and gift duties, which now went into the War Expenses Account.

The Leader of the Opposition, continued the Minister, had objected to amounts being deducted from the War Expenses Account to cover social security charges on soldiers' wages, but was it not right that the one shilling m the pound, which the soldier wou'd pay on his wages as a civilian, should go to the Social Security Fund’ A .soldier's dependants were just as likely to b» a charge on social security a* they were when he was a civilian.