LAST YEAR’S ACCOUNTS

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1930, Page 13

LAST YEAR’S ACCOUNTS

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ■ "HOSPITAL CHARGES £1 Is 4d HEAD ir . - " • ■ • * SAVINGS ON ANNUAL ESTIMATES. Referring to the transactions of the last financial year the Minister of Finance, stated in the House last night, inter alia: — "Of a total revenue for the year of £25,349,861, the sum of £19,474,115 repre- , «ents proceeds of taxation, the balance of £5,875,746 being interest earnings, fees, and miscellaneous departmental receipts. Of the proceeds of taxation, £8,837,335 is direct taxation, and the remaining £10,636.789 is indirect. Included in the total revenue is the sum of £1,510,790, being petrol-tax, duties, licenses, etc., in respect of motorvehicles, which revenue is specially earmarked for main highways, leaving £23,839,071 available for the general purposes of the State. This represents an increase of £1,482,9(2 over the receipts of the' previous year. . ’ - “ ' “The principal headings of increased revenue were 'Customs’ and ‘Land and In-, com# tax.’ Customs revenue showed an increase of £942,794 over that of last year, and exceeded the estimate .by £497,046. This was due to the fact that the total imports were greater than anticipated, the imports for 1929-30 exceeding those of the previous year by over £4,000,000. ‘'Land and income tax receipts for the year totalled £5,040,675, as against £4,451,201 for the previous year, and exceeded the estimate by £147,675. The Commission set up to consider cases of hardship arising oilt of the amendment to the law last session, whereby farmers holding land of an unimproved value of £14,000 or over are assessable with special land-tax, considered 531 applications, declined twentythree, and granted remissions totalling £118,000.. In all cases the - Commission’s recommendations were adopted by the Government. After allowing for the remissions, tile , additional tax received amounted to £240,000. “The principal decreases of revenue were in respect of stamp and death duties (£170,4-28) —the latter being obviously difficult to forecast —and interest on railway capital liability . (£199,011). The decrease in interest-recoveries from the 'railways is due to the .writing-off of £8,100,009 of railway capital. This reduction, however, was offset by a decrease in expenditure resulting from the cancellation "of the subsidies previously paid on branch lines and isolated sections of railway, and an increase in the rate of.interest payable from 4 1-8 per cent, to 4| per cent. DETAILS OF EXPENDITURE. VOTES UNDERSPENT BY £218,000. “The net expenditure of the Ordinary Revenue Accbunt for the\, year totalled £25,200,882, compared with £24,176,928 for )he previous financial year. The net inirease of £1,023,954 is made up of £9.83,008 ' ‘ Jn permanent appropriations,.and the balance of £40,946 in annual appropriations. “Briefly, the expenditure under permanent appropriations consisted of the following items: — • Expenditure 1929-30. £ Interest and debt-repayment • 10,697,242 . Pensions and family allowances 2,749,898 Proceeds of . petrol-tax and other earmarked revenues , appropriated to Main High- ; ways Account and local authorities 1,509,410 Subsidies to Hospital Boards and local authorities 952,144 Subsidies to Superannuation Funds and National Provident Fund 381,548 Other items under various special Acts 937,363 Total £17,227,605 “In regard to pensions, these generally must be expected to increase with the population. ;Of the increase for the year, old-age pensions were responsible for ; £49,250 and war pensions £25,776. It 'might perhaps be thought that the latter should be falling off instead of increasing, but, as a matter of fact, many of the returned men are only now feeling the full effect of their war injuries. “The increase of £62,390 under the heading of ‘Subsidies to Hospital Boards and local authorities’ consists of £58,767 in respect of the former, and the balance, £3,623, in. respect of the latter. The rates of hospital subsidy are statutory, and the . increase is due to the added cost of public , hospitals throughout the Dominion, in con- . nection with which I may add that the . total charge on public funds, both local 5. and Government, per 'head of population has risen from 15s 5d in 1923-24 to £1 Is' 4d in 1929-30. “The balance of miscellaneous items under special Acts shows a decrease of £209,473. This is due principally to the fact that as from April 1, 1929, the subsidy in respect of isolated sections and branch lines of railway was discontinued, but the sum of £29,929 came to charge during the year, ■■being the subsidy owing as at March 31’ 1929. The subsidy paid during the pre- ■ vious financial year was £496,578, so that - the reduction in this item amounted to £466,649. Against this, however, must be set the advance of £150,000 from the Consolidated Fund to Working Railways Account to enable the expenditure for the year to be met. This advance cannot be recovered and will require to be written off. It was accordingly made a charge against revenue for the year. The net decrease : on account of subsidies to the Railways was : thus £316,649; but this reduction did not represent a net gain to the Consolidated Fund, as it was more than offset on the : revenue side by a reduced interest recovery ; amounting to £344,250 on account of the' • £8,100,000 of capital written off.”

Ever since there have been vaudeville and pantomimic entertainments there have been Jokes about sausages, and tae laugh ig usually from people who are. tickled with the very absurdity of t eir contents being anything other The experience of a Wellington lady on Saturday rather upset that idea, says the Dominion. She was about to eat a sausage, and finding some resistance to her knife, opened up the sausage to find, to her immense amazement, a blue ticket of stout paper, bearing the number 34. The only conclusion that sho could come to was that the sausage merchant concerned was probably running some kind of . sweep or lottery in connection with his w (business, and ? if so, she may be a win-.