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the Budget', and I hasten to support it before the point is made that it is a poor kind of balance which shows an Bach extra weight of dollars on the Expenditure side. and every year Government must perforce estimate for a full staff on duty: but there are invariably casualties such as cannot reasonably be foreseen which leave some balance on the total Estimated under the Head Personal Emoluments. Further the choice of Public Works Extraordinary provides a very difficult problem.
Bach
The
item proposed must be specifically named with its figure, and yet there is probably no year in which the Public Works Department have been able to carry out the whole programme and to expend all the money allotted. Department is an easy public target for jokes on this account, but a very little reflection will show that the position is one which is dictated by the circumstances. In such a long list of works as Government has to consider in any year and the detailed memo by the Director of Public Works in your hands shows only those that have been selected from a preliminary list several
times as long there are necessarily a number of
uncertain factors.
The practice in forming the
Estimates is to enter at once on the list all works that are definite commitments, to add those considered essential and to make a choice from those considered
desirable up to the limit of the funds available if any remain. But even in the first two categories there
are