THE VOICE OF THE PRESS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18914, 27 June 1931, Page 9

THE VOICE OF THE PRESS

NEW ZEALAND TOPICS DISCUSSED Below Budget Estimates. Last year Mr. Forbes In his Budget asked for taxation amounting to £20,070,000, excluding the unemployment levy, representing an Increase of £600,000 on the actual figure of the previous year, but the accounts recently published show that the return was £18,699,980, or less by £1,470,000 than the estimate of the Budget, and £BOO,OOO less than the actual collections in the previous year. This revenue was classified under seven headings, and under five of them the returns were below Budget expectations. Custom duties were £925,000 short, and other deficiencies were: Beer duty, £40,000; stamp and death duties, £393,000; land tax, £95,000; motor taxation, £75,000; a total of £1,526,000. The film hire tax and Income tax yielded £56,000 more than was anticipated. Income taxation produced £4,003,605, representing more than 21 per cent, of the total amount raised by taxation, and the highest In amount since 1922.—“ Southland Times.” The Cape Campbell Terminus. Not content with making every show of continuing with a project which meets with the approval of only a relatively small proportion of the people of New Zealand, the Government would appear to be determined to Invite further criticism of the South Island Main Trunk railway by considering the selection, as the main terminal of the line, of a comparatively remote inlet on the south-eastern coast of the Island, far removed from the established centres of the Marlborough provincial district. No other inference can be drawn from the visit last week of the Engineer-ln-Chlef of the Public Works Department to Clifford Bay, a lonely spot near Capa Campbell, which is as present the subject of a survey that is intended to discover Its eligibility or otherwise as the treminus of the railway system.— “Otago Daily Times.” Information Sought. The warm commendation of the New Zealand loan by the London Press should have encouraged the Prime Minister to repeat for the enlightenment of the general public In the Dominion that frankness of Information for which he has been applauded In London. Instead, he has Issued a perfunctory and entirely inadequate statement of the purposes to which the loan is to be applied. Whereas a copy of the prospectus Is available to any applicant at the Bank of England, its contents are treated In New Zealand as a State secret of inviolable sanctity. Mr. Forbes not only maintains this ridiculous custom, but fails entirely to announce, as he should do, what the Government proposes to do with £3,OOOfKX) for public works and £1,000,000 for electricity supply, and what is the character of the indebtedness to the redemption of which £1,000,000 Is to be applied. He may consider It sufficient to say that £4,000,000 are to be applied to "productive purposes,” but that phrase has lost its magic in New Zealand even if it still impresses British Investors.—“N.Z. Herald.” Secondary Highways. It is satisfactory to note that the relations of the Taranaki District Council with the Main Highways Board appear to be cordial, and that in making recommendations In regard to declaring certain roads secondary highways the council has put the claims of the settler in the backblacks first. Speaking broadly, the main roads In the province are reasonably satisfactory for all classes of traffic, but much remains to be done before the same can be said of roads in the hinterland, though It Is in those districts that decent means of transit can do more for the pioneer than in any other part of the district controlled by the Highways Council. The work it performs is more often subjected to criticism than to praise, but it can claim on the whole to have rendered good service to the community It serves and to have shaped Its policy in accordance with a provincial rather than a parochial outlook.—• “Taranaki Daily News.” Superannuation Fund. The contributions of Public Servant* to the fund depend on their age on Joining it. They are 5 per cent, for those joining under 30 years and rise to 10 per cent, for those Joining over 50 years. These contributions are quit* inadequate to pay the pensions provided. The Government has never paid into the various funds the amount actuaries consider necessary to put them on a sound basis. The latest available figures show that future subsidies to be provided by the State for the Public Service fund, over and above the £86,000 per annum at present provided, amount to £4,748,659. The teachers’, railways and police funds are In an equally bad position. It is evident that in future years the superannuation funds will be a heavy burden to the tax-payer, though the reduction of the maximum pension to £3OO will ultimately relieve the position to some extent.—“Taranaki Herald.” Cry from the East Coast. Ministerial responsibility has been shuffled off on the shoulders of this board, and presumably political wirepulling which has been responsible for so much extravagant expenditure in the past, is at an end. The new board will carefully weigh the merits and demerits of every' scheme placed before it and judge whether in the interests of the Dominion it is prudent for such scheme to be sanctioned. Gisborne has a good case to present. The figures which a sub-committee hf|; collated are unassailable, and no time should be lost In sending them forward to the board with a request for their complete examination. We are sure it can uncpntestably be shown the board that there is no other railway proposition in New Zealand which offers such good prospects both as to revenue and development as the Gis-borne-Napier line; none, therefore, so well justified or calling so urgently for immediate prosecution.—“ Poverty Bay Herald.” One Satisfactory Export Item. If prices for our produce are falling and wages are either being eliminated or cut beyond recognition, cricket scores are rising with a rapidity less amazing than gratifying. In the nine matches already played the New Zealand cricket team has lost only one and the knights of the willow who bear our banner abroad have acquitted themselves so welt that they have earned the praise of the most conservative element in the community; a happy thought at the last provincial conference of the Farmers' Union was thp decision to send a cablegram of congratulation to the team. The farmers in conclave assembled with before them gloomy reports of cheese prices, wool prices and meat prices, were evidently delighted that at least one article of our exports had proved satisfactory.— •Southland Daily News.” The hour was divided into 60 minutes because no other small number has so many divisions as sixty. It can be evenly divided by 2,3, 4,5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30.