EXAGGERATED.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LIV, Issue 83, 3 April 1933, Page 1

EXAGGERATED.

COST OF CANBERRA “BOOK-KEEPING RUN MAD.” DEBTS AT COMPOUND INTEREST. SYDNEY, March 24. We hear from time to time in this country a great deal about the enormous expense involved in the maintenance of Canberra, and the heavy outlay that its upkeep entails upon the Commonwealth. But a great many people are convinced that the statistics constantly published to this effect are fundamentally wrong somewhere, and the Canberra Tourist and Publicity Committee, which is trying to redeem the reputation and raise the prestige of the Federal capital, now has the matter in hand. It has set up a committee which has made some very sensible suggestions about the methods of accounting- that ought to be adopted. One source of the misrepresentations and libels from which this unfortunate place has suffered is the famous Act passed in 1924 by Sir George Pearce, which provides for the funding of all debts at compound interest, and includes in the list of financial obligations all claims that have to be met at Canberra whether for local or national purposes. This failure to distinguish between local and nntional expenditure has naturally put Canberra hopelessly on the wrong side of the ledger, and it is high time for this ridiculous situation to be rectified. FLAGRANT ABSURDITIES. Here are some of the most flagrant absurdities revealed by the committee’s scrutiny of the Canberra public accounts The sum of £49,000, representing the cost of the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York, was debited against Canberra, though the object of the expenditure was undoubtedly a national one; cost of a luncheon (2s) paid for by Sir Littleton Groome, at a little village in the Federal territory 20 years ago, has been debited to Canberra at compound interest, and has now nearly doubled itae-lf; the cost of maintaining a prisoner at a place a short distance from Canberra, whose food was bought 20 years ago out of loan money, is also debited to Canberra — always at compound interest.