CO129-505-12 Estimates of expenditure 1928 1-9-1927 - 12-1-1928 — Page 80

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to be done if revenue does not markedly improve during the

next few years. We have been living for some years on our

accumulated surpluses which we are consuming at a rate

which is certainly more rapid than we like, but it must be

remembered that with practically no additional taxation we

are carrying the burden of a programme of works undertaken

in the spacious days of an overflowing exchequer. Luckily

these works, where it has not been possible to shut them

down, are rapidly nearing completion, in some cases I regret

to say, in a much abbreviated form, and at the end of 1928

we hope to find our commitments of the past reduced to a

comparatively small figure. We must however recognize that

when we reach the end of our liquid balances we shall have to rely on revenue alone for any Public Works Extraordinary

which are not chargeable to loan, and unless our revenue

increases, either by increased prosperity or by increase in

taxation, we shall have to be content with a much smaller

annual expenditure on Public Works Extraordinary than has

been usual in the last few years. No longer shall we be

able, as in the days of plenty, to assist enterprising bodies

in their schemes for development, however admirable, with

advances from the public purse. The fact that we have an

item in our assets of over $1,500,000 locked up in Building

Loans to private bodies and individuals is some indication

of the measure of our past assistance by way of advances. This money we now require, as soon as we can recover ite for works of public utility. The Secretary of State has

therefore requested that a warning be issued to the effect

that Government will not for the present be able to entertain

appeals for financial help from private or semi-public bodies,

who must restrict any schemes or projects they have in view to

the

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