THE ESTIMATES

Otago Witness, Issue 4038, 4 August 1931, Page 72

THE ESTIMATES

DRACTIC REDUCTIONS. BIG CUT IN OTAGO VOTES. WELLINGTON, July 30. The estimates of Government expenditure for the year ending March 31, 1932, were issued in conjunction with the Budget speech. Included in the Estimates are many inescapable fixed charges, such as interest and sinking fund and other commitments, but the departmental expenditure appears to have been considerably reduced and specific votes reassessed in the light of the vastly changed economic conditions. The annual appropriations total £7,083.879, whereas the past year’s vote amounted to £7,707,529. A more equitable comparison, however, is with the amount spent, and this is given as £7,672,179. The permanent appropriations, which offer practically no scope for reduction, total £17.679,904, as against an expenditure last year of £17,035,863. The annual and permanent appropriations are a charge on the ordinary revenue account of the Consolidated Fund, and together they total £24.763.781. Last year the two appropriations involved an expenditure of £24,708,042. In addition to the permanent and annual appropriations the Estimates supply details of a number of services chargeable to separate accounts and accounts outside the Publie Account. In these is included the Working Railways Account wherein it is estimated that £6,110.532 will be required to defray the salaries, contingencies, and expenses of the working railways. Last year’s expenditure was £6,222,160. The subsidies to hospital boards have been reduced by £95,000. Half this Dominion’s contribution of £1,000,000 has been givqp toward the Singapore base, and the annual estimate is reduced from £125,000 to £lOO,OOO according to arrangement between the Governments. The salary of the Governor-General, including special expenses, amounts to £6750 instead of £7500. The honoraria of members of both Houses of Parliament, too, reflect a cut. The Legislative Councillors receive £284 a year, and members of Parliament £405. Judges’ salaries remain unaltered. It costs £2200 to keep members of Parliament in free stamps according to the allowance. A little over £lO,OOO lias been cut off the cost of running the legislative departments, which include both Houses of Parliament, Bellamy’s, and the parliamentary library. Bellamy's last year cost £8076. This year it is budgeted for at £6473.

The estimate for the Prime Minister’s Department is £15,553, which is nearly £lOOO more than was spent last year. Included in the Stamp Duties Department estimates are refunds of the totalisator and amusement tax of £5129 in connection with the Dannevirke, Poverty Bay, Taranaki, and Waipukurau earthquake race meetings. Increased postal charges are listed here and there as increasing the Government’s expenditure in connection with freight ami transport costs on parcels, more of which are being carried by rail. This will cost the Internal Affairs Department an extra £6OO.

Heavy reductions are made in the External Affairs Department, which are brought from £41,213 spent last year to £8997 budgeted this year. Owing to the reduced price of tropical products the profits of the department were less than usual.

The charges incidental to the establishment of the Trade and Commerce and Tourist Office in Canada cost £1622 last year. This year they are expected to cost £1324.

An allowance is made for £307 for the travelling expenses of the Trade Commissioner in Australia on a trade mission to Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. Advertising within New Zealand is being cut down from £2032 to £l5OO. Advertising overseas which last year cost £21,486. is expected this year to cost £17,450.

The proximity of the general election accounts' for the substantial increase in the estimates of the Electoral Department. Last year’s expenditure totalled £9991, but the vote for the present year is £81,518. The sum of £27,500 has been allocated for the preparation and the printing of the rolls, and £24,500 for the taking of the poll. The licensing poll is estimated to involve an outlay of £12.000. For special investigational and instructional work in connection with the manufacture of cheese £l9OO is voted. Last year £664 was expended on his work. The department explains that further extensive efforts are increasingly urgent, due. to the difficulties experienced by companies in the manufacture of this commodity. It will be necessary to undertake a considerable volume of additional work m many of the New Zealand factories. The department also makes a vote of £9OO for a guarantee on the export of eggs, and £5OOO in respect to the guarantee on the export of fruit.

The Agricultural Department pays the whole cost of the concession granted to

fanners on the railage of lime and fertilisers for agricultural purposes, and £43,000 is allocated in respect of the carriage of lime, and £97,000 for portion of the freight rates on fertilisers. Formerly the Railways Department met half the amount. The education vote totals £2,912,536 as against an expenditure last of £3,230,139. There is a vote of £48,720 to defray the salaries and expenses in connection with the administration of the Unemployment Act. On the occasion of his maiden speech in the House during an emergencj' session Mr Taite Te Tomo, the latest Maori parliamentary recruit, chose to speak through the agency of an interpreter. He was on his feet for about a quarter of an hour. The services of the interpreter cost the State £25 for that short excursion into the realm of parliamentary oratory. A saving of over £32,000 is shown in the vote of £270,743 for mental hospitals, while the Health Department appropriation of £220.859 is lower by nearly £24,000. In the latter postage and telegrams are estimated to cost an additional £lOOO. due to the increased charges. The sum of £444,045 is provided for naval defence, as against £418,837 expended last year, on account of more recruits being received for the seagoing forces. The vote for medical examination (last year’s vote was £5O) is trebled. During practice H.M.S. Dunedin lost a torpedo, and £2200 is voted to replace it. A total of £240,000 is earmarked for the expenses of the Defence Department, of which £141.584 is for salaries. Last year the vote was £332,200, but the economies effected during the year enabled the expenditure to be reduced to £277.799. There is a sum of £lO,OOO to cover the pay and allowances of territorials attending camps under the new scheme. The amount expended last year was £2344. Drastic reductions are the rule in those items in the Estimates affecting Otago, and the pruning is most notable in respect of the University and the State forest nurseries and plantations in the province of Otago. The University statutory grant is reduced to £10,877 from last year’s £15,350. For the maintenance of dams, etc., in the Central Otago irrigation district the same vote as last year is allocated — £13.100. For the maintenance of Glade House and the Te Anau-Wakatipu-Milford track £4500 is allowed this year as against £6OOO in 1930-31.

The Dunedin Drainage Board’s allowance last year —£150 —for the drainage of public buildings is £lOO only this year. For the Dunedin branch of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children £lOO is allotted. There is a heavy reduction in the allowances from the Health Department for the laboratories in the Otago Medical School. Whereas last year £5OO was granted to the bacteriological laboratory this year there is no grant at all. Similarly the grant for the pathological laboratory this year is nothing against last year’s £lOO. The axe has been applied to the forestry votes with a vengeance. For the nurseries at Tapanui and Naseby last year £4386 and £2687 respectively were granted. This year the figures are £1742 and £BO6. For the plantations the votes are as follow (last year’s being given in parentheses): Blue Mountain, £1770 (£2955); Conical Hills and . Pukerau, £5OlB (£9615); Naseby, £826 (£3075). For the Greenvale and Dusky Hill plantation the vote is increased, however, from £778 to £2289. For the maintenance of the South Island main line and branches the railway estimates allocate £471,495, for the signals and electric branch £50,716, for the maintenance of rolling stock £510.571, for locomotive transportation £505,980, and for traffic transportation £659,515. A big cut has been made in the vote for the Lake Wakatipu steamers’ maintenance from £lB,OOO to £12,500.