THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 58, 3 November 1887, Page 3

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT

DEFICIENCY ESTIMATED AT £389,305. STRINGENT PROPOSALS BY THE TREASURER. DEFICIENCY TO BE MADE UP BY REDUCTION op SALARIES. RAILWAYS TO BE MANAGED BY A NON-POLITICAL BOARD. EDUCATION VOTE TO BE REDUCED. The follwing is a brief summary of the Financial Satement as submitted by Major Atkinson in. the House on Tuesday evening last: — No attempt will be made to revise the tariff this session. The excess of expenditure over revenue is set down at £389,305. The proceeds from the sale of lands is to be devoted to opening up Crown Lands and making roads. The management of the railways is to be placed in the hands of a non-political board. Governor's salary and allowances to l)e reduced by £2,500. Premier's salary, £1750, to be reduced to £1000. Other Ministers, £1250, to be reduced each to £800. Number of Ministers to be reduced f rem seven to six. Legislative Council : Honoraria to be fixed at £100 instead of £200. House of Representatives : Members to receive £100 honorarium, and £50 allowance. Salaries of officers of both Houses to be reasonably reduced. The number of members of the House of Representatives to be reduced to 70, inclusive of Maori members. Legislative Council members to be reduced to 35. The total number of persons in the pay of the colony including the Governor, ministers, judges, and others, but exclusive of police, military forces, and country postmasters, is 7163, and their salaries are £1,004,273. Of these 5862 are receiving salaries not exceeding £150. a year. The total amount paid to this class being ■£638,519. Tho Government do not propose to make any substantial Alteration in payments made to these persons. It is probable that their numbers may be reduced. The amount of £365,754 paid to persons in receipt of salaries over £150 a year is the principal amount upon which it is possible to make reductions. The reductions proposed in the departments generally, will be dealt in committee by the several ministers in charge of the departments. Educational : Capitation grant to be fixed at £3 15s per head, and not to he paid upon any child under six years of age. Provision will be made to prevent the closing of country schools. The saving on the education vote is . estimated at £60,000 per annum. Government propese to repeal the drown and Native Lands and Rating Acts, and apply for authority to declare •certain districts in which the law shall equally to Maoris and EuropeThe Maori, on the one hand, •will be as liable to pay rates and taxes »s his fellow subjects of the European race is, and on the other hand will be permitted to deal with his lands as freely as a European after the Cmwn title has been obtained, except to this - -extent that he will be compelled to retain a sufficient amount of land for maintenance of himself and his family. The Government will effect departmental reductions to the amount of £251,000, and can make still further substantial reductions by the means of amalgamation of offices. It was further proposed to increase the Property Tax from thirteen-six-teenths of a penny to a penny. Adding together, then, the whole of the proposed reductions, it will be found that when complete effect is given to them the expenditure chargeable for a year upon the revenue of the Colony will be reduced by £300,000. The Treasurer briefly recapitulated the leading items of which this large sum is composed: salaries of Ministers, £3450 ; allowances to members of the General Assembly, £10,000; Depart* mental appropriations, £252,550, including reductions in respect of Ministers 1 residences, travelling allowances, j Ac. ; races on Crown lands, £34,000 ; ; " making a total of £300,000 for a full financial year. North Island Railway : Jt will undoubtedly be necessary to place a North Island Main Trunk Railway Loan upon the London market «arly next -year. The late Government had contemplated issuing this Joan about the end of this month, but (Owing to the result of the elections the matter was allowed to stand over; but in order to obtain necessary funds, the Colonial Treasurer made arrange* tnents with the Bank of New Zealand here to advance £500,000, repayable in London on April next on securities ,of this loan. The Government, therefore, propose to place this loan upon ihe London marftet at the first favor* able opportunity, and no more borrowing will take place for three years -from March, 1888. The Midland Railway: There is one large and important work — the Midland Railway — jrhich the Treasurer but briefly referred to, as the Government intended to deal with the question immediately in anvother way. The importance of the •work in a colonial sense had been repeatedly recognised by tfce Legislature; tmt the Committee will have seen from the papers laid on the tabje that the -negotiations with the company were still incomplete in important partieur Jars. The Government hoped, with the further aid of the Legislature, to bring these negotiations to a euccessfal conclusion. In conclusion Major Atkinson said : The account I have given neither conceals nor exaggerates pur difficulties ; while it shows that it js entirely within our own power to .overcome them ; if needs but the will to do it. And this measures I have proposed—^embodying as they do three frite but vital economic principles— of . ipregojng such tjiings as we canpepre .■ . easily spare than pay for, «f making £uch money as we spend produce the % Jjest possible result, and of increasing a^d #nco ura g in f &? wealth.prpdueej!

'of the Colony ; and embodying also, last but not least, a wholesale self* reliance — these measures will, I trust, commend themselves to this Committee, as I believe they will to the countrj at large. Major Atkinson spoke foi * aa hour and a half, aud concluded amidst cheers from all parts of the House.