THE SCIENCE CONGRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21733, 26 August 1932, Page 9

THE SCIENCE CONGRESS

PAPER ON NEW ZEALAND REVIEW OF THE FINANCES (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, August 25. At the Science Congress Mr I. W. Holt, in a paper reviewing the public expenditure in New Zealand for the past five years, said the deficit was £1,021,000 in 1928-29. It was now estimated to be £8,700,000 for the current year, reducible by half through proposed wage cuts and reductions in expenditure. Increases in the income tax in the past three years had only added burdens to the poorer classes. The same could be said of the increased Customs duties and the wage tax. The new taxes would all appear to operate in a direction which was not calculated to increase the equity of the tax system as a whole. Mr Holt expressed the opinion that the budgetary policy had been too closely confined to balancing the Budget, and that in a wider sphere the State favoured a deflationary policy, but its measures of assistance thereto were not consistent with that aim. It appeared to rely, unwarrantedly, on an optimistic idea of future world prices. This involved a period of waiting, and the Treasury could not afford to wait. Mr E. P. Neale (Auckland), in discussing the depression, said the obstacles to recovery included past' borrowing ;for transport, hydro-electric services, advances on real estate in excess of real requirements, the declining earning capacity of the public works, debt renewals, at higher interest rates, the fall in prices, and rigid wages and working conditions. The schemes to deal with unemployment were only palliatives, and some were wasteful, leading to no real remedy. CONGRESS CONCLUDED, SYDNEY, August 25. “It has been a remarkably successful congress, and the benefits to science generally should be of incalculable value,” said the president of the Science Congress (Sir Herbert Murray), at the conclusion of a meeting of the General Council, which was the, last official, function of the gathering.