IRISH FREE STATE.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18948, 18 May 1933, Page 12

IRISH FREE STATE.

FINDS DEFICIT IS SMALL.

NET SHORTAGE OF £16,000.

REVENUE SHOWS . A GAIN

DUBLIN. March 31

All things considered, the Government of Eamon de Valera, nearing the close of the financial year, finds itself in a better financial position than most observers expected. The Treasury returns issued during the week show the revenue of the Free State to be about £26,000,000, although the financial year does not close until April 5. This is within £1,000,000 of the budgetary estimate. Expenditures were about £26,000,000, more than £2,000,000 in excess of the previous year, yet -the net deficit shown to date is only about £16,000. The fact is that the Treasury collected £1,500,000 more in revenue from March of last year to date, although the country was in the midst of a trade war with Great Britain.

Yield Based on Year Before. Under such heads as income tax, corporation excess profit duty and Customs, Sean MaoEntee, Minister of Finance, had considerably increased yields, but the assessments on which the yields were obtained, it must be borne in mind, were for Incomes and profits earned during the year before last, before the effects of the fall in trade were felt. Official trade statistics for the year ended in February showed that the total trade of the Free State had fallen more than £86,000,000 from the previous year’s total to £64,000,000, and that, despite the imposition of many protective tariffs, the adverse balance of the Free State had risen to more than £15,000,000.

Opposition spokesmen in the Dail Eireann go so far as to predict a deficit in next year’s budget of more than £2,000,000 as a direct consequence of decreased revenue.- If the more than £4,500,000 of land annuity money' withheld from Britain and now being used to aid the year’s expenditure were added the defleis would be anything from £6,500,000 to £7,000,000. In reality these opposition prophecies are- seldom fulfilled. The Flanna Fail Administration, when it goes before the Dail with its second budget, can feel satisfied with the financial position it has to disclose. If the effects of the present trade war with Britain could be kept within the same limits as the year just closing the country could carry on indefinitely, but this Is doubtful, as the bounty schemes that enable the farmers to evade the full force of the British penal tariffs are proving too costly.

Confidence Is Growing,

If the country has to face a leaner time in the year ahead it at least has the advantage of enjoying comparative peace and a generally growing feeling of confidence in all classes. Under Mr de Valera’s regime, it is frankly admitted, even by the Government’s opponents, there has been a marked increase in industrial activity' andi business in cities and large towns, and bank deposits have increased, as the .banking returns will show.

These factors will all help the Government when It comes time to raise a loan at home after the budget is introduced. Floating a new loan is imperative if the Government is to carry out several ambitious social schemes that have been proposed, the foremost of which is the ten-yeai housing programme, costing £20,000,000, which Vice-President Sean T. O'Kelly launched. Mr O'Kelly declared war on slum dwellings in Dublin. Also there are schemes for starting new beet sugar factories and developing mineral and fishing resources, none of which can be financed out of revenue without imposing greatly increased taxation.