EXPENDITURE REDUCTION

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1930, Page 11

EXPENDITURE REDUCTION

DEFENCE SYSTEM HELD UP HOSPITAL SUBSIDIES REDUCED. DECREASE OF £388,000 EXPECTED. Dealing with reductions in expenditure, the Finance Minister stated in his Budget last night: — The net expenditure last year amounted, in round figures, to £25,200,000; but, as I explained when dealing with the transactions for the year, the total includes £10,097,000 for debt charges and £2,750,000 for pensions and family allowances, in which items, as I have just stated, increases are to be expected. Of this, four items, debt charges, pensions, highways moneys and subsidies to local authorities, account for £15,176,000 of the £17,228,000 of expenditure under the permanent appropriations. “Of the remaining £2,052,000, approximately £090,000 went in subsidies to Hospital Boards on ra'tes, £600,000 being on account of maintenance and £90,000 bn' capital levies. So far as maintenance is concerned, curtailment of the subsidy, except insofar as it arises from the exercise of economy by the hospital boards, is not possible without upsetting the whole basis of hospital finance, and it is not. proposed to do that. With capital expenditure, however, there is more elasticity, and for this year capital expenditure by the boards will have to be restricted to urgent essential works. In this, way it is estimated that a reduction of £30,000 will result in the subsidies payable out of the Consolidated Fund. SUBSIDIES TO INSTITUTIONS. “Subsidies on voluntary contributions and bequests to hospitals and various educational institutions amounted last year to approximately £BO,OOO. Generally speaking, bequests, together with the subsidy normally payable thereon, are in the nature of “windfalls,” usually additional to the normal finance of ■ the organisation concerned; and the same remarks apply to some of the voluntary contributions that are received. Obviously, little hardship will be entailed in restricting the payment of subsidy to cases where voluntary contributions and bequests are applied to essential works. Subsidies on voluntary contributions for useful and necessary, work in connection with the primary schools will be paid as heretofore, but, in general, each request for a subsidy will have to be considered on the merits of the ease. It is hoped in this ,way to save £40,000 this year without inflicting any great hardship on anybody. “Then there are the subsidies to State Superannuation Funds and the National Provident Fund, which last year amounted to £382,000, including £43,000 maternity allowances paid through the National Provident Fund and the friendly societies, but, pending the report of the Committee which is investigating the position, only the subsidies usually paid are being budgeted for at present. This means a saving of £175,000, though probably only a temporary one, in comparison with the expenditure last year. “The Civil List and salaries and honoraria, mostly Legislative and Judicial, payable under statute, accounted for a further £138,000 of the expenditure under permanent appropriations; while grants to university colleges, scholarships and other education purposes absorbed £101,000; compensation for condemned stock, £30,000; Singapore Naval Base, under agreement with the British Government, £125,000; maintenance of war graves, £31,000; and exchanges and management charges of New Zealand stock in London, £72,000. Reductions cannot be made in these items. I may add, however, that the Singapore Naval Base will be a subject for discussion at the forthcoming Imperial Economic Conference. , Permanent appropriations. “The remaining expenditure under permanent appropriations last year, amounting to £403,000, included £lBO,000 on account of railway losses, which this year will be wholly reflected in decreased interest receipts. An amount of. £50,000, transfer to. Discharged Soldiers’ Depreciation Fund, need not be repeated this year, although .the amount of ‘the fund is not yet. large enough to offset the discharged-soldier-settle-ment losses written off against loan capital. The balance,of the expenditure consists of payments under numerous Acts of Parliament, full details of which are set out in the estimates placed before honourable members. “The expenditure undpr annual appropriations, which comprise the departmental costs,, numerous ■ small giants and subsidies, and various miscellaneous items, amounted last year to £7,973,000, nearly half the amount—or £3,219,000 —being spent on education. “In the' case of defence, the amount allowed, £275,000, will mean a general suspension of the compulsory military training and some reduction in the staff personnel. The dispensing with the services of members of the staff is much regretted, especially in view of the unemployment difficulties, but if there is to be a suspension of operations the work will not be there for .them to do. “The estimates under annual appropriations prepared- on the basis that I have indicated total £7,585,000, being a decrease of £388,000 as compared with last year’s expenditure. In addition, as previously mentioned, . a reduction in the railway estimates, aided by certain increases in revenue, will aid to the extent of £450,000, “