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that it would be necessary to draw on our surplus balances
to the extent of $1,970,452 during the present year, and that we have revised that figure to $152,966, which will leave us with a surplus balance at the end of this year of $12,095,789.
As Hon. Members are aware it is the policy of this Government so to frame its annual Budgets as to maintain its surplus balances at a figure of about $10 million, and to consider that any amount in excess of that figure is available for non-
recurrent expenditure. In particular the programme of Public
Works for each year is made to depend upon this figure, being
more amenable to annual adjustment than most of the other
services of Government. With this in view it will be seen that we may anticipate starting 1936 with an available credit of slightly over $2 million; and were it to be expected that
Revenue in 1936 will reach even the reduced total of the revised
estimate for the current year the position would be not unsatis-
factory. Unfortunately however it is anticipated that on the existing basis of taxation the Revenue can hardly fail to be
a million and a half dollars behind the 1935 revised figure.
I will refer later to the question of additional
taxation, but would only say at this point that the 1935 scale
of taxes is continued unaltered in the Estimates now before
the Council, except that it has been decided to forego rather more than half a million dollars of Revenue by reducing the charges for excess water, as these have been represented as pressing too hardly on the general public.
On this understanding the Budgetary problem resolves
itself largely into a question of curtailing the expenses of
Government. The first curtailment to be considered is that of
Public Works Extraordinary as being the largest single Head