NATIONAL FINANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19474, 2 November 1926, Page 10

NATIONAL FINANCES.

RETURNS FOR SIX MONTHS. CHANGES IN ACCOUNTING. DIFFICULTY OF COMPARISON. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION. ] WELLINGTON. Monday. The public accounts for quarter ended September 30 were published in a supplementary Gazette to-night. The following official summary is furnished by the Treasury. It states that the total revenue received for the six months amounted to £9,801,547. For the same six months of last year, after excluding railway revenue, which is now paid to a separate account, the revenue was £8,647,356,. so that the first half of the financial year 1926 shows an increase of £1,154,191 over the same period last year. Included in the current half-year's revenue, however, are the following items which were not received during the first half-year of 1925: —Interest on railways capital liability, £1,010,377; interest on public debt redemption fund, £.136,812, total £1,147,189. The increase over last j'ear is therefore nominal. The principal increases are:—Customs, £48,484; Post and Telegraph, £150,117; income tax, £143,501; departmental receipts, £40,915. The principal decreases are:—Stamp and death duties, £64,849; land tax, £27,567; interest on public moneys, £278,839. The total expenditure was:—Permanent charges, £6,683,615; annual appropriations (excluding railways expenditure), £4,600,385; total, £11,284,000, as against a total for the first six months last year, permanent charges, £5,837,793; annual appropriations (excluding railways expenditure), £4,298,245; total, £10,136,038. The increase was :—Permanent charges, £845,822; annual appropriations, £302,140; total, £1,147,962. From this must be deducted for comparative purposes payments amounting to £566,000, made in the second half of 1925-26. The principal increases in permanent charges are:—lnterest, £167,903; repayment of Debt Act, 1925, £390,000. Under special Acts, £277,830. Under annual appropriations, the principal increases are:—Legislative Departments, £32,149; Department of Internal Affairs, £52,196; printing and stationery, department, £25,619; naval defence, £34,148; defAnce, £24,095; customs, £54,025; education, £73,409. A change in accounting, brought about by two important policy Acts, the Railways Amendment Act, 1925, and the Public Debt Repayment Act, 1925, do not enable periodic comparisons between 1925-26 and 1926-27 to be easily made, and a sure survey in simple form is only possible at the close of. the year.