BRITISH NATIONAL FINANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17983, 7 January 1922, Page 6

BRITISH NATIONAL FINANCES.

Although the British Treasury returns for the nine months ended December 31 show an excesß of expenditure of sixty-three millions, the position seems to be no worse, and may even be rather better, than it appeared at the ' *><rj: _:'ng of November when the Chancellor of the Exchequer presenter 1 a revised estimate of the Budget. Last April Mr. Austen Chamberlain anticipated a surplus of £84,000,000, with a further surplus of £93,000,000 from extraordinary revenue, principally the disposal of Government stocks. After providing for various contingencies he estimated that £80,000,000 would be available for redemption of debt, against £259,500,000 actually discharged in the previous year. Sir Robert Home has already abandoned that hope. An enormous strain has been placed on the national finances by the coal strike, by tb.e settlement of war obligations, notably under the railway agreement, and by the financial measures for the relief of unemployment. As a result the estimated surpluses in the ordinary and the special accounts had disappeared by the end of October, and special contingencies had absorbed further savings in expenditure apt" caching £20,000.000. The most s ris deficiency revenue has be .i >.* inspect o' h± arrears of excess profits duty, which was to produce £120,000,000. have greatly exceeueJ expectations, and the net result for nine months has been under £.30,000,000, so that it appears unlikely the total for tin year will reach ?ven tho revised estimate of £70,000,000 or £80,000,000. There hsen a similarly omincus dtcline in the miscellaneous receipts, including sales of Government siort-.s, and J ,o balance the account the Chancellor has been constrained to include prospective payments from Germany for the upkeep of the army "' occupation, though it fl.ii Mr. Chamberlain's view that any such receipts " will n } of Jvurse, to the further redemp '<"• ji debt." Sc far as the rwrnLts are concerned; che Chancellor has predicted that there will be no deficit, but there will not be any surplus toward the reduction of the debt, and it will be necessary to borrow £60,000,000 or more to meet maturing obligations. But while the total debt will not be reduced, the British Government has already paid off £80,000,000 of external debts, mostly in the United States and Canada, with the proceeds of internal loans. Altogether there is a very fair prospect, in jpite of the extraordinary difficulties of the year, that the national accounts will bn balanced without id •!; Lions to the national debt, mk tee outlook for the following year is more disturbing. Revenues from income tax, excess profits duty and miscellaneous receipts will be greatly curtailed, and at the same time the Treasury will have to begin payment of interest on the debt to America, amounting to £25,000,000 each halfyear. The situation thus indicates further drastic curtailments of es.Eeaditusft,