SOME STATISTICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2284, 19 November 1889, Page 2

SOME STATISTICS.

Fioures are generally voted dry reading, ! yet notwithstanding this there are among [ a batch of Parliamentary papers just to | band some items of statistical information I which will, we think, be perused with interest. One of these is a return relating to THE TE KOOTI EXPEDITION. From this it appears that the expenditure by the Colonial Government m respect of the ex-rebel's attempted visit to GHsborne waa as follows, viz. : — Pay of Volunteers and Natives, £1249 18s 4d ; shipping charges and passages of Permanent Militia and Volunteers, £566 8s ; Rations for Volunteers, Natives, etc., £843 133 5d ; Cartage and Horse-hire, £301 4s 6d ; Purchase of Stores, £53 8b lid ; Labor, £7 19s 6d ; Miscellaneous amounts under 10s for Repairs, Paddocking, etc., £50 4s lOd ; Medicine, £9 16s 6d ; making the total cost of tho Te Kooti escapade apparently £2610 14s. We say apparently because m another return giving « the details of the sum of £3764 expended during the last financial year as ' contingencies ' under the vote for Volunteers," we find the item '• Te Kooti expedition " £1004 9s. That sum, therefore, evidently must be added to the total given m the return first referred to, and this done, it will be seen that Mr Mitchell's blunder m allowing Te Kooti to start for Poverty Bay cost the colony altogether the sum of £3615 3s. The next return at which we propose to glance is that of MINISTERS' TRAVELLING EXPENSES during the period* commencing Ist Oct. and ending 3rd Dec, 1888. This was moved for by Monk, the object of obtaining a return for this particular period being to ascertain what was the cost to the colony of the celebrated expedition to Melbourne at the time of the great annual Turf Carnival. From this it appears that tho only one of the then Ministers who drew anything beyond a very modest amount was the Hon Mr Fisher whose little bill came to £100 0s 6d— -that odd sixpence is amusingly precise— Mr Fergus' charges being only £18 7s, and Mr Mitchelson's little more than half that sum, viz , £9 Bs. The details of Mr Fisher's " expenses " included " travelling allowance, 46 days at 30s per diem, saloon passages Wellington, via Lyttelton, to Melbourne and back £20 10s ; cab-hire and porterage £7 10s 6d, and stewards' fees 10s, the remaining £2 10s, which makes his total of £100, and sixpence, being for " carriage-bire to Deaf and Dumb Institute, Sumner." The drawings of the other members of the Cabinet during the same period, for travelling within the colony, were—- Sir H. Atkinson £16 lis 6d ; Mr Hislop £13 17s ; and Mr Richardson £16 6s. The next is a return relating to fcANKRUFTCY laid upon the table by leave by the Hon. T. Fergus. This Bhows that during tho year 1888 for the whole colony (exclusive of the New Plymouth district, for which at date the figures were not available) the total number of bankruptcies was 868. In 66 of these the liabilities' were under £50; m 198 between £50 and £100 ; m 256 between £100 and £250 ; m 151 between £250 and £500 ; m 97 between £500 and £1000 ; m 47 between £1000 and £2000 ; m 23 between £2000 and £5000 ; and m 22 £5000 and upwards. The number for the Canterbury district was 237, m 84 of which the liabilities were under £100, 102 under £500, 29 under £1000, 14 under £2000, 5 under £5000, and 8 above £5000. The amount of Court fees for the whole colony for the year was £0240 9s 2d, and the cost of administration of the Department (not including Judges' salaries or any part of the cost of the Ministerial Department of Justice) amounted to £6280 17s 4d, of which the salaries and remuneration of the Official Assignees and DeputyAssignees totalled up to £4597 5s 7d. The last on the list is a return of THE COST OF PARLIAMENT PER DAY. This was moved for by Major Steward, and shows " the average oost per day of the sitting of Parliament m respect of messengers, lighting, and all other items of cost the amount of which depends on the duration of the session, and not including any fixed expenses, such as the honorarium of members, statutory, annual, or sessional payment of officers of either House, or any expenses which do not vary with the length of the session." Such a return was very desirable because of the wild statements often made by careless writers and speakers as to the cost of debates, it being frequently asserted that " such and such a speech cost the colony hundreds of pounds," and particular menjbers being often pointed to as having by their talking put the colony to tho expense of so many thousands. Those wh,o make these assertions lump the honorarium of both Houses together, add the Speakers' salaries, salaries of officers of the House, messengers, eto^ cost of "Hansard," cost of lighting, etc., etc., together, and divide the total by the number of. aotual sitting hours, thus bringbag out, of oourse, a very large figure per hour j but, inasmuch as the honorarium and most of tho salaries above referred to, including those of the " Hansard " staff, are precisely tho aonje whether the session be Jong or short, it is evident that to arr,ivo a t the cost of speaking (or of obstruction) per hour it is necessary to omit these, and only to ■ take into account the items whioh vary with the length of the session — are, m fact, proportionate thereto. These ar,e given m detail m the return under notice, and include salaries of extra clerks, messengers, charwomen, polioe, mailman, extra library assistants, fuel, gas, electrio lighting, washing, etc., and amount m the grosa.to £32 7s lid per day. That is for the first fourteen weeks of any session, after which the ' additional cost of printing (about £32 6a Sd pep day) has to be added. The average number of hours of sitting last session was nine, and thus it will be seen that the coster hour of ' speaking (or obstruction) m Parliament '■ is exactly 72s during the first fourteen weeks, and £7 4s m subsequent weeks —or, m o&er words, that the cost of a speech is a fraction legs than Is 2£d and 3s 5d per mjmite, or a farthing ar-4 a halfpenny per second respectively,.