THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1923. THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18774, 30 January 1923, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1923. THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

In general terms the results of the working of the public services for three quarters of the current year were stated by the Minister of Finance a fortnight ago when he announced the figures for the December quarter. They showed that, in comparison with the corresponding period of the preceding year, there was an increase of receipts to the extent of rather less than a million and a reduction of expenditure to the extent of a little over two and a-half millions. Consequently, there was a net improvement for the three-quarterly period of about three and a-half millions. The publication of the accounts for the December quarter in the New Zealand Gazette admits of a more detailed examination of the figures. This shows

that the receipts from Customs duties, stamp and death duties, and the Post and Telegraph Department contributed most largely to the increase in the total revenue. Customs duties .yielded £318,729 more in the three quarters of the current year than in those of the preceding year, and it is noteworthy that the whole of this expansion was recorded in the December quarter, when the effect of the tariff revision manifested itself for the first time—to the tune, in fact, of an increase of over half a million upon the revenue from this source in the December quarter of 1921. Stamp and death duties showed an increase of £280,027 upon a comparison of the receipts for the threequarterly period and the Post and Telegraph revenue was greater by £193,697. The results of the operation of the railways system were less unsatisfactory than they have been for a considerable time. The revenue for the December quarter showed an increase over that for the corresponding quarter of the previous year, but the comparison for the three-quarterly period is still unfavourable to the current year, the receipts being £95,787 below those of the first three quarters of 1921-22. On the other hand, there-has been a very substantial reduction in the expenditure on the system —a reduction, spread throughout the nine months, of £1,372,314. Next to the Railways Department, the Education Department is that which is responsible for the largest expenditure. In the past three quarters it spent. £57,857 more than in the corresponding period of the preceding year. As the demands for education facilities grow the expenditure of the department must needs increase, and all that the community can reasonably require is that ,the expenditure is - judiciously made. The expenditure of the Post and Telegraph Department was reduced by £290,387 for the three-quarterly period,- and there was a reduction of £52,813 in the expenditure of the Department of Agriculture and of £121,948 in that of the Defence -Department. Despite the fact that its activities have been reduced to a virtual minimum, the Defence Department, however, still costs nearly as much as the Department of Health. The most serious item of expenditure is, however, that in respect of interest and sinking fund. In the past financial year, the interest charge amounted to £8,442,278. For the first three quarters of the current year it amounted to £6,999,722, which was more than £IOO,OOO in excess of the payment on this account in the corresponding period of 1921-22. In 1914-, 15 the interest charge was £3,071,448. It should be obvious that there is no /question demanding more serious attention from the new Parliament than that of a need for a reduction of the public debt. It is unlikely that there can be any relief of taxation in a degree that will be really effective in encouraging enterprise in the development and expansion of industry while the dead weight of the burden of the annual interest charge, increased by between five and six millions in the past eight years, remains as onerous as it is at the present time.