The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1902. THE VICTORIAN DEFICIT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10828, 19 December 1902, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1902. THE VICTORIAN DEFICIT.

The Financial Statement delivered by the Victorian' Treasurer has been forecasted to the extent that it was generally understood that it would disclose at deficit of nearly one million .sterling on the year's receipts atfd expenditure. The actual figures arc now set forth as JE953.000. This is a, very Bcrious gap in the State's finances and one that will put the Treasurer almost to his-, wits end to fill in under existing circumstances. He proposes to raise a quarter of a million extra taxation in the coming financial' year, partly by reducing the income tax exemption limit to JElOp, and partly by ' increasing the tax on incomes above .£SOO a year. He also proposes to increase the probate duties by reducing the exemption from JEIOOO to .£IOO, by which it is thought .an additional Ji7O,QOO will be collected. .So desperate is tho State's financial need that the Treasurer proposes to make a levy on the Railway * Accident Fund ..and the Railway Stores Suspense Account to tho extent of iJHO.OOO. The case is a very bad one. . but tho Victorian State Government hae neither the skill nor the plnck to dea" with it courageously and effectively. It can only' screw its courage up to the imposition of additional taxation and the practical seizure of the,accumulatcd funds of the Railway" Accident Fund and Stores Suspense Account, instead of retrenching, and reducing its outlay, within measurable' distance of" 1 Its income,- as Treasure: Turner proposed. .If the GoVerntnent of Victoria we're to follow Sir George Turner's advice it ■ would cut down its legislative expenses by reducing Both the number of legislators and their honorarium; but it has not sufficient courage to propose sc common-sense, a remedy for a disease that is sapping the vitality of the whole, of -the Australian States. Victoria for the "financial year 1901r02 raised .£7,006,333,* but spent nearly half a million in excess of this amount. .This year its deficit is close on a million. The other Australian States • are in' the same financial straits, New South Wales being so hard pressed foi xfioncy. that . site Is going on the London market for a loan of three millions almost immediately. If the States of the Australian Commonwealth were possessed* of capable . public men they would soon put their houses in order and live wijthin their income, but there seems a dearth of such me^n'in Australia at .present, with the re stilt that the finances of the different States are in a' very serious condition, which is not likely to improve so- long at extravagance and incompetence' are the leading characteristics of their public financial operations. The drought, nc doubt, has not improved matters, and will be- blamed for a great deal it is not really responsible for, but the' real' 1 cause of the troxible^is tne Want of courage on the part of -the State Ministers to cut their garments 'according' to their cloth. In Vic'toritJ- the 'deficit is the direct outcome of the, extravagance and' incompetence of the State Government, which instead of attempting to lessen the people's burden ol taxation at a time of great depression and finanacial unrest,- actually proposes to increase it, and to continue' on its spend thrift course as- long as the people 'there will permit the present to continue in office. 'The result will be that the credit of tho State will bo so badlj yijureoVthat it will not be possible to go ott borrowing much longer in the 1 English money market even at an increased rate , of interest.* This will bring "matters ■to a climax and open the eyes of the people to the folly of their administrators when too late to avert a financial cataclysm oi disastrous proportions.