FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE PROVINCE.

Evening Star, Issue 3818, 20 May 1875, Page 3

FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE PROVINCE.

To the Editor. Si®,—At last we have had a detailed account of the financial position of the Province of Otago in Mr Turnbull’s annual statement mado in the Provincial Council last evening. He commenced by congratulating the Province on the steady progress it had made during the year and the present healthiness of its finances usd he then produced his figures, and upon these alone I wish to make a few remarks. With regard to the double columns under the heading “actual” and “estimated” receipts the items are bo computed that it is made to appear that there is an actual balance of receipts over the estimated expenditure of a sum of not less than L 66.517, and this we are told has arisen “ mainly from Crown lands.” Now, sir, every business man knows that in esiin?i, • ac^iua i annual resources he can only “come he derives from his principal, ftnvnnr^ OU Hv l - 0t dream of including therein K?kf rfh “ capital, for if he touches that •tetemwt. met top(SS*toS toa?

wealth and resources of the Province. With regard to the item of “gold export duty,” I find an actual receipt of L 11,502 as against an estimated sum of L 19,000, showing a difference in the estimated gold.producing resources of the C>-'ony of not less than L 7,498. Weareallaware tba Otago has made the most strenuous efforts to obtain a populate here, and I believi that a working man here at present is perhaps in a better position than the residents of almost any other country, and we have here undoubtedly a working population second to none in the world ; but is it fair and correct, sir, that to invite sbch a population to our shores representations should bo made by paid agents of the Colony who furnish no real data to intending arrivals as to the actual position of the Colony, financially or otherwise ? X think it is unfortunate that these a cuts have a direct pecuniary inteiest in inducing immigration under any circumstances. When do we near of an agent who, whilst expatiating °? beauty of the climate and the fertility ox the soil, enlarges upon our extraordinary astern of finance, or who tells his audience that under our system of borrowing we are about the heaviest taxed community in the world. It requires no gieat economist to tell us that excessive recourse to borrowing is not, *. rule, conducive to healthy business activity, and that living upon capital means nothing else than ruin. The capital of Otago is its land, and out of a revenue of L517,G49 we see that it requires to support revenue no less a sum than L 235.696 drawn from that capital alone. This fact speaks for itself.—l am, &c.,

_ L. Priestley Bowen. Dunedin, May 14.