Cost of our Government.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 128, 23 April 1872, Page 7

Cost of our Government.

The Melbourne Lender, in the course of an article on the manner of the government of New Zealand, gives the following summary of the cost attendant thereon : " First, there is the General Government, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Representatives, with a real Governor at its head ; next there are nine Provincial Governments, possessing a chamber each called a Provincial Council; and that with a Superintendent, or miniature Governor, over it. The aggregate number of legislators in the various bodies in 1854 was 1157, but it is now increased to 3i>o, all having to be paid £1 a day when attending to parliamentary, and 15s. a day when attending to Provincial Council duties. Then there is the Governor with £6OOO a year, and the Superintendents with their salaries of £BOO to £IOOO a year each ; to which we have also to add the Executives of the General and Provincial Governments, with salaries varying from I £3OO to £IOOO a year, and allowances of £1 a day extra in the case of those in receipt of | the higher-named salaries, if away from the j chief seat of government, which generally I happens for nine months in the year. When | the Constitution Act was promulgated in 11853, the European population amounted to | 31,000, and the expenditure to £i4t>,Bss, or to nearly £4 15s. per head. There was no i public debt worth speaking of then. But i what is the position of the Colony now I j With a population of 250,000, its cxpendi- | ture, chiefly derived from taxation, has in- ; creased to £1,640,000 ; and its public debt to £8,750,000 actual, and many more millions there is no saying how many—in prospect. New Zealand has the honour of being the heaviest taxed country in the world. While the taxation in the United Kingdom is £2 Bs. 2d. ; in Victoria, £4 ; in New Zealand it is nearly £7 per head of population."