Million
p. 25 · Read in the full issue
Aust. Grant
To P Ng
Its Up Another
Million
AUSTRALIA’S annual gift to the Territory of Papua and New Guinea has gone up by over £1 million. This was revealed in the Australian Budget, delivered on August 5. The figures: Grant to P-NG, financial £ year 1957-58 11,390,000 Grant to P-NG, financial year 1958-9 12,424,000 In addition, Australia makes a lot of grants through Departments other than Territories, of which details are not available at the moment, but which run well into six figures.
Substantial provision has been made in this Budget for “loans for Territory ex-servicemen”. This is the concession wrung out of Canberra after years of trying by the Territory RSL—but which now has lost much of its value. It would have represented an import ant development, if made ten years ago. Individual servicemen may get loans up to £25,000.
P-NG was lucky to get another £1 million out of this budget. It is one of the most barren Budgets presented to Australia in recent years—no concessions worth men tioning were made to anyone.
Because of the weakness of the Labour Party, the Government seems assured of return in the general election next November, so there have been no cuts in taxes.
An attempt to stimulate invest ment in P-NG is made by allowing Australian investors to deduct, from their taxable incomes, most of the sums they have invested in oil and the development of rural lands.