On Sound Business Lines.

Mr. Sterling said it was impossible to foretell with any degree of certainty page 24 what lay immediately ahead in the matter of trade revival, but without wishing to appear unduly pessimistic, he thought it would not be wise to count on any very substantial improvement during the current year. Indeed, said the Chairman, the figures of the Department's business for the first two months of the present financial year showed that revenue was still dropping, but notwithstanding the increasing difficulty of obtaining reductions in expenditure, it was satisfactory to note that expenditure had been reduced to an even greater extent, so that for the first two months there had been an improvement in the net revenue. True the sum was not great, relatively speaking, being £2,000, but in the circumstances it was gratifying to know that the Board had been able to show a credit balance, small though it might be.

The public, Mr. Sterling added, could be given a full assurance that the Board during the current year would be unremitting in its endeavour to run the affairs of the Department on sound business lines, and to realise what it considered to be its true objective to provide the community with the service it needed at the lowest possible cost.