THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1930. THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20966, 4 March 1930, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1930. THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

The community will have learnt with gratification that the health of the Prime Minister has benefited materially by the treatment he has received at Rotorua. The personal qualities of Sir Joseph Ward make him an object of so much esteem in New Zealand that the fact that he has | been more or less laid aside for several months has been a matter of national concern. Upon public grounds, moreover, his prolonged indisposition during a period of financial stress has necessarily caused a considerable amount of uneasiness on the part of the taxpayers. The control of the finances of the Dominion at such a time throws a very heavy responsibility on the Minister who presides over the Treasury, and the composition of the Government is such that Sir Joseph Ward is to [ m i for assistance of much value from any of his colleagues in the performance of the duties of this office. Instead, indeed, of seeking relief from the cares which it entails he has, in the shuffling of portfolios that has taken place, piled fresh responsibilities on himself. Whether he has acted either in his own interests or in the interests of the country in so doing may be regarded as doubtful. It would certainly seem to most people that in present circumstances the general oversight of the State departments, such as°must be exercised by the Prime Minister, and the direct control of the public financesj would constitute a task sufficiently 'onerous to engage the close attention of a man in the enjoyment of" good health. The fact that the country has now entered upon the last month of the fiscal year furnishes the occasion for an examination of the growth of the public expenditure. Various changes that have been made in the State system of accounting render comparisons of expenditure both difficult and apt to be misleading,

but they do not disguise the fact that the expenditure continues to mount up not actually only, but also relatively, to the population. There is, it is to be admitted, no escape from an increase of expenditure in several directions. Among these is the charge in respect of interest and sinking fund, which is now being swelled not only on account of the e ffect of the" loan conversion operations that were completed last year, but also by reason of the increased rate that is being paid by the Government 0)1 the moneys that are being raised locally. There are other payments, amounting in the aggregate to large sums, in repeat of which there can hie no reduction. These include all the payments that are made on account of pensions of various kinds—payments that may be justly regarded as the discharge of debts of honour. The expenditure, moreover, in respect of permanent appropriations—expenditure, in other words, that is made .under statutory provision and that is consequently not subject to review by Parliament—forms a large proportion of the total annual expenditure,' It is only in the departmental expenditure, which is annually voted by the House of Representatives, thait reductions can be effected. It was argued by a Minister a good mapy years ago, when the need for the miaintenance of a strong grip on the public finances was by no means so pressing as it is now, that even this expenditure was beyond the control of the Government. This amounted, however, to a plea that it was by the heads of each of them naturally indisposed to admit that any retrenchment in his department was possible, and not by the responsible Ministers themselves that the expenditure qn _ the ordinary administrative services of the country was regulated. The invalidity of this plea was convincingly demonstrated by Mr Massey whon representations were made to him in 1921 about the growth—an alarming growth, as it was then regarded l —in the departmental expenditure. Mr Massey took the matter vigorously in hand and in the last three years of his life was instrumental in introducing economies that admitted of a substantial reduction in the taxation that was imposed on the people. The manner in which economies may now be made, or in which the growth of the public expenditure may be cibeckod, is one that calls for the earnest; consideration of those who are in {authority. Every taxpayer can, in all probability, point to some service in which, in his opinion, economy can usefully be effected. Individual suggestions are, however, of not nradh avail. The whole position needs to bo overhauled by a Minister who has a grip of it. For this reason it is to be hoped that the improvement in t] xe health of Sir Joseph Ward will bo maintained so satisfactorily as bo enable him to devote his restored abilities to the task of reviewing the expenditure with the object of reducing it within limits that will at least affer the taxpayers some prospect of relief from their present burdens.