REFORM’S MILLIONS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 69, 1 November 1928, Page 8

REFORM’S MILLIONS

'- : • 1,, : ,, , , ... , x - - - SOME AMAZING FIGURES. I'' ■ , ; i. ’ ’ A DISASi'ROUS. FEATURE. I ■ _ , ‘ ; Discussing the public as ai •meeting at Mr Veitch said: ‘There liias been a good: deal of misquoting of figures. To put the matter briefly, the public debt when Tceform took control of the Treasury benches in IDTi whs a, little over £84,600,000, and on March 31 lastit was £251,000,000. Icavimr an increase of the gross debt of £167,000,001. (The accumulated) .surpluses of revenue ever expenditure at March 31 totalled £30,000,000, of which about £3,000,000 remained unspent. Thus, 'nearly £27,000,000 of capital money laid l been disposed of by Reform in addition to £167,000,000 of borrowed money. Adding these two amounts together, w© find that the total capital moneys disposed of by Reform since its succession to office was £.193,080,945., The cost of trie] war, £81,843,534, is inducted in this amount. If we subtract the cost of the war from the total capital moneys disposed of, we find that Reform.’s capital expenditure amounts to £ll2, 143,411 over and above the cost of the war. To this must be added some five or six millions that are to bo borrowed' during the current year. “The disastrous feature of this finance does uot lie) in the fact that a largo amount of money had been borrowed and spent, but that it did not add! to the national income. New* 1 railway stations, at Wellington and Auckland, expensive railway tunnels, j and other such works were not reproductive expenditure.