Enclosure No. 6.
263
BUDGET SPRCH
I rise by Your Excellency's command to move
the first reading of a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to apply a sum not exceeding $23,840,416 to the Public
Service of the year 1936".
I can, I am sure, count upon the indulgence of Hon. Members in my task of submitting this my first Budget in the unfortunate circumstances of which this Council is only too well aware.
Then Your Excellency moved the first reading of the Budget for 1935 you referred to the very serious depression in trade from which the Colony was at that time suffering. That was a year ago, but unfortunately there are to-day few, if any, signs of recovery, and that the position has not improved during the past twelve months is very clearly brought out by a comparison between the original and the revised estimates of revenue for the current year. The original estimate was $30,585,650,
the revised estimate is $23,328,034, a short-fall of over $2 million; and though this is more than offset by the savings of some $4 million on expenditure, the revised estimate of which is $28,431,000 as against the original estimate of $32,556,102, it must not be over- looked that a considerable part of this saving is caused by the fact that, whereas the estimates were framed on a 1/4d dollar, exchange has been in the neigh- bourhood of 2/- for the greater part of the year. The figures which I have just given show that it was expected