THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20338, 21 February 1928, Page 8

THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

The Prime Minister spoke somewhat warmly last week respecting the “ loose talk,” as he described it, which has come to his notice upon the subject of public expenditure. “ Every penny piece,” ho declared, “ is most carefully calculated before it is spent.” The members of the Government may be readily credited with a desire to exercise economy wherever it is practicable. But they themselves are very largely in the hands of the permanent heads of the departments that are administered by them. It is impossible to suppose that the Ministers can personally know very much about all the various directions in which money is expended by their departments. Sometimes, they apparently issue instructions that economies must be effected, witb results that may not be encouraging to them' to proceed any further. Generally speaking, they seem powerless to prevent a continuous increase in the expenditure upon the administrative services. For the first nine months of the current year, it is to be admitted, the increase in the departmental expenditure, amounting to £27,059, over the expenditure for the corresponding quarter of the past fiscal year, was comparatively small. If the increase for the complete year is relatively as small, the Government will merit congratulation. He would bo an optimist, however, who would count upon a result so favourable to the taxpayer as that would be. The opinion is expressed m the latest bulletin prepared by the Department of Economics of Canterbury College, and issued by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, that “ there appears to be much room for the reorganisation upon more economical lines of many Government Departments.” That is not a view that is likely to receive much support from the public officials. The Government last year set up a committee of departmental officers to consider the estimates of expenditure item by item and to reduce them to a bare minimum consistent with the maintenance of existing services. We expressed at the timfr a grave doubt whether such a committee was precisely the claes of advisory tatty

that could he relied upon to recommend economies where they might be effected most readily and without the impairment of administrative efficiency, and that doubt was confirmed by the outcome of this committee’s investigations. It is not from within the service that any reform worthy of the name can be effected. The constant tendency there may be said to be towards an expansion of departments and a | creation of new departments, each one of which involves an addition to the administrative expenses. What the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce seems to suggest is a reorganisation through the amalgamation of departments—a process which would be directly the opposite of the normal process and which is not in the least likely to be favoured within the service.