POST OFFICE FINANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21245, 27 July 1932, Page 10

POST OFFICE FINANCE

The statement of results achieved by the Post and Telegraph Department in 1931-32 has been issued in a form that does not make comparison ■with the official figures for other years easy. Apparently the revenue, including all items usually counted in the statement presented to Parliament, was £3,715,230. The expenditure, with the interest paid on capital liability as shown in the Consolidated Fund accounts, was appsirently £2,794,566. On this basis the revenue was larger than in 1930|3l by £7BOO, and the expenditure £510,000 less. These assumptions account for the working profit of £920,664 giyen in the present statement as the outcome for the year. The net result is stated to have been a slight increase in the value of the business transacted. Yet, in the defigures given, reductions of income are shown for the telegraph branch, toll receipts, and the telephone branch. For the last-named the drop of £20,575 is described as trifling. The revenue for the previous year was given as £1,239,000 in round figures, • so the loss in revenue is approximately li per cent, and is claimed to be much more than counter-balanced by the saving in expenditure. The chief omission in the present statement is of any indii cation showing how the postal business for the year compared with that for 1930-31. There must have been a revenue increase, otherwise, with the losses admitted in other branches of departmental activity, the income could not have been maintained at the level implied by the figures given. Whatever the exact position, it is perfectly clear that the surplus produced and handed over for support of the Bridget was almost entirely the result of reduced expenditure. Increased charges ruled throughout the year under review. It is quite certain that their main effect has been a drastic reduction in the business of the department. Otherwise working expenses would not have been the chief contributor to the £912,000 the Consolidated Fund received from the Post and Telegraph Department.