THE BUDGET ESTIMATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20392, 22 October 1929, Page 10

THE BUDGET ESTIMATES.

The statement issued by the Prime Minister in defence of tho estimates of expenditure and the demand for additional revenue from taxation does not answer tho public criticism that has been provoked by analysis of the Budget, but merely reiterates statements that were made in it in anticipation of opposition to the policy of increasing taxation. It is based upon the contention that the proposed expenditure represents the absolute limit of economy in administration, and that revenue must be expanded to cover it. No answer is made to the objection that the cost of government is excessive and that the analysis of expenditure in the Budget, by which whole classes are claimed to be rigid, is erroneous, since they include administration costs that should be closely scrutinised. Tho official defence amounts to an admission that no such review has been, made. It has also been contended that the direct comparison of totals by which the Prime Minister calculates the increase in expenditure is misleading, because no reference is made to large items in last year's Budget that have been excluded. No advantage has been gained by the taxpayers from these savings ; they have been swallowed up by inflation in other directions. The provision for interest and repayment of debt has been increased by £456,978: last year's total included the exceptional and non-recurrent item of £156,000 involved by the change in the dividend date of stock converted in January, so that the real increase in the debt charges is £613,000, which is nearly three times the increase last year. If that burden cannot be avoided, there is the greater need for more scrupulous economy elsewhere. In addition, items amounting to £98,000 have been omitted from the Estimates under statutory authority, making a total, with the interest item, of £254,000; nevertheless, tho Budget asked for an increase of £701,599 under permanent appropriations. The annual appropriations are open to similar criticism. The Prime Minister claims that they require an increase of only £32,000, but he ignores the fact that the Budget has been relieved of £22,500 in respect of the Pacific mail subsidies, which are now wholly charged against the independent Post Office account; that the cost of tho general election, £BO,OOO, is not repeated in this year's Estimates; and that £35,000 were saved by omitting the vote for main highways. Hence, the real increase in the annual appropriations is £169,000, to which will be added the Supplementary Estimates, tentatively taken as £262,000, or £431,000 altogether. According to the Budget, tho increase in expenditure, including the Supplementary Estimates, will be £995,000. Is that a reasonable amount in view of the fact that the Government has saved, in non-recurrent items and others for which no vote has been, taken, no less than £491,500? Since these savings- have been absorbed by expansion of other expenditure, the actual position is that the Government is increasing expenditure by £1,486,000 and is covering its extravagance by levying additional taxation..