Excerpt from Budget Speech: Delivered by Hon. William S. Fielding, M. P., Minister of Finance, in the House of Commons, Thursday, May 22, 1906

So far as the expenditure of the year is concerned, the result was not so satisfactory. Therewas a considerable increase in the expenditure beyond the amount' which I anticipated when I made the budget speech. Having regard to the late date at which the budget speech was made last year, we might naturally have expected that we would approximate more nearly than usuallyto' the outturn of the year. As a matter of fact, the fiscal year had closed -a few days before the: budget speech was delivered; but the close of the fiscal year and the close of the accounts of the fiscal year are two very different things. In Great Britain the fiscal year closes on the 31st of March, and the accounts close immediately, all balances lapse, and the new year begins with the appropriations fer the year. That 1s quite possible m a country like Great Britain, with a comparatively small area, a dense population, and means of communica tions by railway, telegraph and telephone, which are of course beyond the means of communication m a country of such vast extent as the Dominion of Canada. It was therefore necessary to allow a certain period after the close of the fiscal year for the closing of the accounts. As a matter of fact, after the closeof the fiscal year 1904-05 no less than came into the accounts between that time and the period allowed by the regulations for the closing of the accounts. The payments made between the closing of the fiscal year and the closing of the accounts last year were more than the total expenditures of the Dominion for several years immediately following the begin ning of the union. While, therefore, it might seem, in view of the budget speech having been delivered at so late a date, that we should have come more closely than we did to the Out turn, the fact 1s that, so far as the revenue is concerned, the results were about as anticipated, while the expenditure, both on consolidated account and on capital account, was considerably larger; so that the surplus was somewhat less than I had antici pated, and while we had hoped to-close the year with a very moderate increase of the public debt, the close of the year showed an increase of the debt amounting to some But while the year was a less satisfactory one in that respect than we had hoped for, it was, as Ifhave said, as respects its trade and finances generally, on the whole a'satisfactory year, and only suffers by comparison with years preceding it, which were years of marked advance. It is worth remembering that now we are dealing in the budget of Canada with vast sums of money, much larger than those Of former years, and it cannot be expected that our estimates will approach very closely to the actual expenditure.

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