A Session Of Spending

Southland Times, Issue 23380, 11 December 1937, Page 6

A Session Of Spending

The present session of Parliament —or that part of it which ended yesterday—will be remembered as a session of spending. In the last few days the House of Representatives has been asked to agree to Supplementary Estimates totalling £1,613,318. The amount provided in the main Budget for Supplementary. Estimates and “contingencies” was £300,000; but, as might have been expected, this proved miserably inadequate for the contingencies which have arisen as the Government has proceeded to carry out its reckless programme. It was inadequate, for instance, to cover the heavy additional expenditure on railway construction. (The South Island main trunk line is to cost £300,000 more than was expected.) It was inadequate to cover the additional requirements of the railway working account necessitated by a sharp rise in costs. It was inadequate to cover the salary increases arising from the reclassification of the public service or the increases granted to departmental heads. It was so inadequate for these purposes, in fact, that the amount originally provided had to be increased more than five-fold. This has brought the estimated ordinary State expenditure for the year to over £36,000,000. In addition, expenditure on “employment promotion” in this year of prosperity is to reach £5,000,000. In addition, the Minister of Public Works has been provided with nearly £lO,500,000 from loan moneys; and a further £1,500,000 is to be found for housing. Altogether, the aggregate expenditure for the year is likely to reach £53,000,000. Labour is the first Government to succeed in spending more than £1,000,000 of the people’s money each week all the year round. While some may find it pleasant to contemplate these good round figures as a measure of the country’s progress, it is a fact decidedly unpleasant that money spent must first be found. Of this £53,000,000 about £41,000,000 is being found from taxation and the balance mostly from departmental reserves. During the current year the average family of four will have to provide about £9O for the Government to spend—that is in tax money alone, without regard for the portion of the £12,000,000 extra indebtedness for which the same family will have to stand security. This exorbitant rate of spending is possible only because of an exceptionally prosperous year. But what use is the Government making of the present prosperity? Is it conserving the country’s resources against the lean years? It is doing no such thing. On the contrary, it is spending at a record rate, saving nothing and consuming what little has been saved. It knows better than to believe in the “inevitability of slumps and booms.”