THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1926. THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19405, 14 February 1925, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1926. THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

As we are almost within six weeks now from the end of tho fiscal year, the matter of the outcome of the operations on the revenue account of the dominion for the twelve months is assuming an importance that is not given to it in earlier periods of the year. The intimation that a reduction of sixpence in the income tax at Home will positively be a feature of the Budget which Mr Winston Churchill will submit to the House of Commons will induce a hope that Mr Massey may be enabled to propose in the coming session certain remissions of taxation additional to those that have been granted in the past year or two. The taxation that is imposed, in one way and another, in New Zealand remains undoubtedly severe, and relief from it to such, an extent as is possible will certainly be desirable. It must be recognised, however, that the permanent commitments of the country are very heqvy indeed and that there is what may be called an automatic increase each, year in the departmental expenditure such as necessitates the exercise of constant vigilance over tho outgoings if they are to be prevented from swamping the revenue. Nevertheless, . the outlook for a favourable balance on the year’s accounts is promising. A comparison of the revenue and expenditure of the Consolidated Fund for nine months of the current year with the corresponding term of last year shows the following: Receipts. Expenditure. » £ £ 1924-25 ... 18,484,830 20,116,239 1923-24 ... 18,210,924 18,997,259 Increase £ 273,906 1,118,980 While the expenditure for the nine months increased by £1,118,980, the revenue, it will be seen, increased by only £273,906. It will also be noticed that the ordinary expenditure for the period exceeded the revenue by £1,631,409. The latter circumstance is not so' disturbing as on the surface it may appear to be, because the concluding quarter of the year, in which the bulk of the taxation on incomes is collected, is invariably the quarter that furnishes the most favourable results to tho Treasury. Of greater significance than the excess of expenditure over revenue is the fact that it is to an increase in departmental expenditure that this excess is largely ascribable. The permanent appropriations—the appropriations that are fixed by law and that are not subject in the ordinary way to parliamentary vote —were less in amount for the nine months of the current year than for the nine months ended on December 31, 1923. It is in the departmental appropriations, therefore, "that the whole of tho increase in the expenditure has occurred. The working of the Railways Department cost £658,543 more in the nine months of the current year than in the corresponding nine months of the preceding year, and this .accounts for more than onehalf of tho total increase in expenditure. The comparative increase in the railways revenue for the period was only £84,772. The expenditure on behalf of the Education Department showed an increase of £107,575. Minor increases are shown by other departments. It is impossible that an increase in departmental expenditure can bo avoided. An increased expenditure is necessarily associated with expansion in the operations of Government departments such as must accompany the development and progress of the country. But under close supervision and careful handling, which are unfortunately not always exhibited in tho administration of State affairs, tho growth in tho expenditure should be so limited and so checked as to secure that the interests of the taxpayers shall not be neglected.