PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT AND EXPENDITURE.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 524, 14 September 1871, Page 2

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT AND EXPENDITURE.

We extract the following valuable letter from Monday's Thames Advertiser. It certainly places the question of provincial extravagance in a very different aspect from that'in ■■ which it is popularly believed: —

Sib, —May I request you to publish tho following letter, written by a gentleman here to a friend in Wellington, a member of tho Houso of Representatives. Tbe writer is woll qualified to form an opinion "upon tho subject to which it relates.—Yours, &o.

4th September, 1871

My dear sir, —In compliance with your urgent request, I now proceed to give you the information you wished to have respecting the portion of the taxation of the colony oxpendod by tho.'.Provincial Government, having taken nil possible; pains to obtain correct information on the subject. : I . "'. .

It bus been stated, both in and out of the House of Representatives, by gentlemen who ought to have boon well informed, that it was only necessary (0 abolish Provincial Government in .this colony to cnablo the taxation to bo reduced: by one-half. No wonder, then, that in ninny parts ot the colony people are led to boliove that centralisation would bo the euro for all their troubles, especially as no one appears to have taken any pains to bring the true state of this important matter before the public. A respectablo newspaper published at the Thames goldfield lately asserted (Idoubt not, in good faith) that the Auckland Provincial Government robs that; distiict of tho two pounds por-heud allowed by the General Government; and, I presume, ifc is generally believed that our Provincial Government has received, and is responsible for, tho expenditure of the whole of the capitation allowance to the provinco as fixed by tho " Payments to Provinces Act" of the General Assembly. Let us see how this matter really si ands. The | capitation; alio wan co to this province for tho your ended the "30tli JuneTtisli was fixed at £127,000, and out of this tbe Provincial

; Goveininentiaa, I find, received just £32,875 Bs. Tld. Viprh .tjiis, however, has to be deducted.nearly>-££Boo, which the Colonial Payma,ster;--showß to have been an overpayment, and which will be deducted from tiro-amount to bo paid to the Provincial Government for July. Tho account will therefore stand somo,thing like this, in round numbers :— ; . '- ;■ .* i;.- - > Proportion of capitation allowance received by the Provincial Government;: ";.,. ,- ..." £31,100 Proportion of capitation allow- ! " '"■ • ance expended by the General /'■_■. Government ... .„ ... 95,90') • £127,000 Out.of this amount the General Government, has paid, for interest and sinking fund of loans raised on account of Ihe province, £34,810; and has expended for General Go' verninent services within the province, .under appropriation by , the Qen.eral Assembly, £61,090." It appeal .then, that the General Government expends, -but of tlie capitation allowance (generally supposed to be paid to the Provincial Government) on its own establishments within the province, as nearly; as possible nineteen shillings .'and eight pence halfpenny (19s. SJdi) per head..of the estimated European population, that it also expends on account of loans charged against the provincef of which, at least a sixth part was raised by the General Government and spont, or rather wasted by its officials) about eleven shillings and twopence three farthings (lis. 2fd.) —while the much abused Provincial Government has only been allowed to dispose of about ten.-shillings and one halfpenny (10s. o£d.) per head.

But could tho people of this country b relieved of even ten shilling per head -of taxe ation, that would be no small boon. Wouldthe abolition of Provincial Governments do oven that for us ? Let us see. What really is. the cost of the. Auckland Provincial Government ... this year ? I find that for the Superintendent,;! Executive, Treasury, Provincial Council, with clerks, messengers, &c., the wholo amount is four thousand five hundred pounds, being nearly one shilling and fivepenco halfpenny psr head (Is. 5 id.) of the population ; ;and that every farthing of the remaining eight shillings and sixpenco halfpenny (Bs. 6|d.) would havo to bo spoilt, althou'.h no Provincial Government existed. But would even the one shilling and fivepenco bo saved were Provincial Governinon'ts to cease ? Some people, iv their simplicity, may imagine that it would, but those who have watched the rise" and progress of the noble army of General Government officials, and know what salaries are paid to the higher class of them, will, I am sure, agree with me that in this respect, as well as in« others, :;it would soon be found tliat the little finger'of the new system was thicker than ,its predecessor's loins. - '- •i •' .- :

I havo just learned that, in the last account furnished by the General Government (that for June), there is charged against the capitation allowance for the month (£10,583).

£. s. d

Interost on Provincial and De- ii -< fence-loans .....,■ ... IV .;;, \330i... 8 8 ■Services Provincially charged ... 9.0G1 15 2

£12,366 3 10 Showing tho Provincial Government share to be nearly £1800 less than nothing.—Yours very truly.