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"These Accounts must be new. rate. There Is a tremendous amount of material to be assembled. Hun- dreds of thousands of items have to be placed in their proper categories. This is done as speedily as is pos- sible. and the Accounts last year were furnished early in September. With the summer vacation inter- vening and with the consequent shortage of staff. I think you will agree that the Accounts were tur- nished without any reasonable de- "Betore t proceed to review the year's transactions and to give you a faithful and accurate account of the business of the Province. it is fitting that l should say a few words regarding the Public Ac- counts for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1936. Honorable members of this House are aware of the fact that the Public Accounts are pre- pared by the Provincial Auditor and his staff. At certain times during the year there are as many " three score of the Auditor's staff prepar- ing the Public Accounts. keeping the work up. separating the various Items. preparing headings. and' doing everything possible to as. semble the accounts of the Province in such a way that it will show in,' the clearest possible manner the) most important transactions that have been dealt with during the fiscal year. . lav. "tn my tirct Budget Speech. de- livered on April '2. 1935. " might be said. to emplov a metaphor, that the dominant note of the speech was that which came from the rc- rounding blows of the pioneer av clearing away the financial debris of the former Administration. In nt" twmnd Budget Speech. delivered on March 12. 1936, when the results ot the financial policies of this Gov. ernment began to take shape. you were able to distinguish. from the evidences of good management on the part of the Government. the progress that was being made to put the financial affairs of tlte Prov. ince on a sound basis and to bring us out of the condition of economic disorder that. had hampered the progress of our Province and brought misery to its people. And now, on March 9. 1937. with the experience of two full years of ad. ministration under the financial policies of this Government. I in. vite your attention to that portion of my report which speaks of the results of the "Pay-As-You-Go" policy which I announced in my Budget Address of last year and to which policy we have faithfully ado bered from the first day of April, 1936. up to the present moment. "Mr. Speaker: in moving, In t do. that you now leave the Chair and that the House resolve itself into, Committee of Supply. it comes to,' my mind that this is the third ow, casion on which I have had the honor to bring to this honorable; body a statement of the receipts! and expenditures and an outline of the flrttuteut program of the Goss ernment for the ensuing fiscal year. Following Is the text of the Bud- get speech adhered In the Ontario Legislature yesterday by Premier Hepburn in his capacity as Pro. vim-h! Treasurer: ROAD PROGRAM READY Gross Revenue for Fiscal You $6,000,000 More Than Estimated - Pledge to Stay Within Accounts Kopf by $940,000 Amusement Tax Ends, Truck Licenses Cut, Subsidies Are Given Public Accounts of I936 "Last year 'hen 1 brought before ' the House the estimates of revenue to be collected. I did so with confi- dence. because t believed that ,times were improving and that we ', had installed the necessary fiscal fmachinery to gather in the amount T that we had estimated. We have [In I versed the policy of the former Ad. iministratioh in our attitude toward i taxation, and the truth of :his ,statement may be found by a con. l sideration of the debates on taxation legislation that have taken place in this House. You will recall the op-, position that we had to tace tact year in attempting to place on tue statute books a fair and sound fiscal measures. 'The Provincial Income Tax.' This year, in amending the! Income Tax Act, we again met with objection. and in the amendments to, the Succession Duty Act we again encountered stubborn and uncom- promising resistance. This revealed. "in striving to achieve the best results for our citizens. this Gov. ernment. has kept before it the Ideal of a balanced Budget. This has been for the Administration its pillar of cloud by day and its pillar of fire by night For we recognize and command this to this Honor- able House. as the alphabet of all our thinking. that a balanced Bud- get is the real basis of the na- tional credit and Is likewise the bulwark of private credit. How well we haxe succeeded in achiev- ing the desired results, l hope to be able to show so clearly that etery citizen of our land may read and understand the Accounts as I place them before you, and. under- standing them. will support the policy which we have adopted and which we have followed consistent- l}. i mean the policy of "Pay-As- You-Go." on its way upward: and it is the business of the Government to develop the human resources, to raise the standard of living and to keep in mind the fact that there is no real :s'ealth but humanity. ..'n "4.1.... 4- -Al1~ - -. . - "Before I leave this subject. let mo my that in the Budget Address delivered last March we estimated n doth-ll of $13.496.6090r. When all m'counts were in and revenues taken into account. the deficit was artually '13..M2.N.5.74, this being an lmprovement shown by the Public Accounts over that estimated in the Budget Address of over $153,000. This fart, Mr. Speaker, proves that the figures presented tn my Bud- :et Address were rellnble and well within the mark. Hovernment may do in one year. it never arrives at a position where those in charge of the financial polivy may sit down and told their arms and feel that their work is done. The people are always dis. covering new social needs. I do not complain of this because I reco'gnize the tttet_tttttt_trreietar is "In regard to the presentation of the Accounts. however. let me draw to theattention of honorable mem- hers of this House the fact that thew Accounts are required by Statute. subsection 2, section 20. chapter 25 of the Audit Act, to be Hid before the Assembly. This means they must be laid before the Assembly at its first session after the close of the fiscal year. It is phi". therefore, that a statement mad" in August or September that the Pubiic Accounts were overdue was incorrect and entirely at vari- anm- with the facts. "Publiv finance ts a great prob. lem. and it is an especially difficult one in that it is a continuing problem. No matter how well a Futures Reliable. "Last year roblems of Public Finance axafion !' "Mr. Speaker. as nearly as I can at this moment estimate and as !nearly as the officials of the Pro- gvincial Auditor's Department are able to compute, the gross ordinarv revenue to: the present fiscal year. which we estimated would amount to the sum of 886.415,6t9.28, wilt reach the sum of 892.221.809.St.Everv department of the Government that has to do with revenue has com- pleted its allotte. task and will re- rturn in gross revenue an amount in fexcess of that set as the 1936.37 ob- 'jeetive. "With the permission of the House. I shall place upon the records an interim statement of gross ordinary revenue for the fiscal year April .1st, 1936, to March Mst, 1937. This statement consists of ten months (actual results and two months fore- 'east, and has been prepared under; the supervision of the Provincial Auditor, who vouches for its ac- .euracy. rthe policy of the former Administra- "ion, which was P. ot taxing the 'many tor the benefit of the privi- leged few. The policy of this Gov- ernment has been, and is, and will be. to tax the few in proportion to their capacity to pay. for the bene- fit of the underprivileged and the common people as a whole This Government holds to the opinion that a person who dies possessed ot great wealth furnishes proof to the world that he passed through this life favored by fortune and en abled to amass great wealth largely because of the fact that he and his class enjoyed favors and privileges and was able. because of loopholes in the laws and bad administration, to escape contributing to the State by way of taxation, that portion at his wealth which he should have, contributed in order to comply with the axiom laid down by Adam Smith and recognized by every democratic country in the world that the 'suts Ject of every State should contribute ' to the support of the Government, as nearly as possible in proportion to his ability to pay.' Fight Side of Ledger. "Last year I expressed the hope that we would collect more revenue than would be required to meet all ordinary expenditures. Realizing that determination is the better part of hope, the Administration began on the first day of April. 1936, to ensure a balanced Budget. Letme sayhere that there has never been a single day in the present fiscal year, from the first day of April until the time I am now speaking, when this an cumulated cash revenues of the Province did not exceed the Ac- cumulated cash expenditures. That is the surest way to finish the (ism: year with a balance on the'rizht side of the ledger.