Fiji’S Surpluses Will Be Used For Social Services
p. 31 · Read in the full issue
Financial Secretary’s Review of Budget Promises Little Tax Relief
From Our Own Correspondent
Suva. Nov. 14.
WISHFUL thinkers in Fiji, who con stantly demand bigger and better • social services and simultaneous.y demand cuts in taxation have been sharply rapped on the knuckles by the Financial Secretary (Mr. R. M.
Taylor) in his Budget speech in the Legislative Council.
Mr. Taylor said they had “Rolls-Royce ideas on a Ford purse.”
At the end of 1948, the Colony’s total surplus balances were expected to be £1,964,820, but it was a mistake to think that those balances would be available for taxation cuts, said Mr. Taylor. Every penny would be needed to finance de velopment.
HE mentioned the schemes before the Development Revision Committee as follows: Agricultural Station (Southern), £96,850.
Feeder roads, an unknown sum, but substantial and very necessary.
Industrial housing and slum clearance, £250,000.
Queen Victoria School, £82,000.
Ratu Kadavulevu School, £25,000.
Suva wharf improvements, £150,000, Lautoka wharf improvements, £120,000.
Suva slipway, £lOO,OOO.
Share of hydro-electric scheme, £400,000.
These, he added, are only a few of the schemes. As plans crystallise the surplus balance will be gradually whittled down to
about £700,000.
“Total expenditure for 1949 is just over £2,900,000,’’ Mr. Taylor continued.
Expenditure List
THE full list of expenditure can be simplified as follows: Administration: Governor, Account ant-General, Audit, Customs, District Ad ministration, Labour, Lands, Miscellane ous, Printing and Stationery, Public Re lations, Secretariat, Stores, Works Estab lishment: Portions of Public Works Re current and Public Works Extraordinary not otherwise allocated, 1948, £668,335; 1949 £703 237 Law and order: 1948, £166,992; 1949. £175,964.
Social Services: 1948, (a) Education, £368,277; (b) Medical, £428,840, £797,117; 1949 (a) Education, £356,337; (b) Medical, £421,024, £777,361.
Public Debt: 1948, £88,725; 1949, £88,465.
Pensions: 1948, £91,200; 1949, £127,200.
Economic Services: 1948, (a) Agricul ture, £156,619; (b) Forestry, £14,755; (c) Communications, £577,688; (d) Power and Water, £182,510—£931,592; 1949 (a) Agri culture, £123,464; (b) Forestry, £23,200; (c) Communications, £425,670, (d) Power and Water, £184,017—£756,351.
Defence: 1948, £75,121; 1949, £168,466. (This includes rehabilitation).
Subsidies: 1948, £141,500; 1949, £41,500.
Social Services
“Social services get the lion’s share,”
the Financial Secretary pointed out. “It is proposed to spend nearly £BOO,OOO on education and medical or about £3 a head of the population and about 27 per cent, of the colony’s revenue.
“Despite this expenditure, services will remain below the level at which many members would wish to see them.”