THE COMMONWEALTH BUDGET.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1747, 30 August 1905, Page 19

THE COMMONWEALTH BUDGET.

A YEAR’S TRANSACTIONS. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. MELBOURNE, August 22. Tlie Federal Treasurer, Sir John Forrest, delivered his Budget this afterneon. The total revenue amounted to £11,460,000. Customs and excise yielded £IBO,OOO above the estimate, and the Post Office £70,000 more than the estimate. The total revenue exceeded the estimate by £72,000. Stimulants and narcotics yielded £4,281,000. The actual expenditure amounted to £4,318,000, being £114,000 below the estimate. The estimated revenue for the current year is £11,387,000, and the expenditure £4,606,000. The cost of federation last year* was Is 6fd per head; the estimate for this year is Is s£d. The revenue returned to the different States amounted to £7,141,000. The estimated returns for this year is £6,783,000. In ins Budget Speech the Treasurer announced that he intended to extend the sugar bonus for another five years from the end of the present term, on the existing conditions. The excise would algo be extended. In regard to the “Braddon clause,” he said that unless some arrangement was made for a fixed amount to be returned there would be no help but to continue the booking system till the end of the Braddon section, as the States’ proposal to borrow only through the Federal Government would lead to interminable trouble.

The estimated naval and military expenditure is £824,000, including £200,000 as a full year’s contribution io the navy. Defence forces generally were engaging the serious attention of the Government. A very much larger amount was required to place the forces in a thoroughly efficient condition. The Government was fully alive to the position, and proposed to spend £40,000 on new drill halls and rifle ranges by the end of next year. The land forces were to be placed on a complete war footing.

The Treasurer added:—“When Australia is willing to pay, she should be given a voice in Imperial defence affairs.”

MELBOURNE, August 23. In his Budget Speech the Federal Treasurer, Sir John Forrest, said he hoped befoi-e long to bring negotiations for the transfer of State debts to the Commonwealth to a successful conclusion. Australia’s trade last year amounted to £94,000,000. The imports totalled £37,000.000, and the exports £57,000,000. Seventy-four per cent, of the total trade was done with the United Kingdom and British possessions.

The proposed expenditure includes

£30,000 for a telephone between Melbourne and Sydney, and £l4u,Qjo for special defence material. The debate has been adjearned. LONDON, August 24.

Tlie “Morning Post” says:—lt is undoubted that the is in general sympathy with 1-he idea that there should be Federal supervision of the States’ liabilities and the nonborrowing policy favoured by the Federal Labour party. Not for many years have Australian material prospects been so promising.