Financial Statement.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 236, 8 April 1897, Page 2

Financial Statement.

The following is a brief summary of the Financial Statement, delivered in the House last night by the Colonial Treasurer (the Hod. Mr Seddon) : — The surplus for the year is at least £340,000. Arrived at thus — Receipts for the year, £4,796,000. Expenditure of the year — £4,671,000. Excess of receipts over expenditure, £125,000. Add balance to begin the year with, £215,000. Surplus at end of year, £340,000. This is an exceedingly satisfactory result. I arii sure you will be willing to allow that these figures would have been better still had it not been for the necessity to charge three halfyearly payments of the interest on the Advances to Settlers loan of £1,500.000 during the past year so as to liring the accounts in line with the dates upon which the interest is paid over to the Bank of England in J London. The extra half-year interest having to be met has decreased the surplus by £22,500. The Advances to Settlers Office is doing well, for. notwithstanding it has had to pay £67,500 within the year, it has only required an advance from the consolidated fund to the extent of £26,000. For this current year and hereafter of course only £15,000 per annum will required to be paid for interest on the £1,500,000 loan, and there is a certainty that the office will soon be able to provide for each year's charge and to pay oft' the arrears of debt due to the consolidated fund. Tim receipts for the financial year 1896-97 were estimated at £4,484,000 while actual receipts so far as I can at present learn have reached £4,796,000. Customs revenue exceeded the estimate by £145,500. Railways by £86,000. Stamps by £38,500. Land and Income Tax by £17,300. Territorial by £5,500. Remaining heads ot revenue and receipts by £16,000. EXPENDITURE OF 1896 97. I estimate our permanent expenditure (including interest and sinking fund, subsidies, payments to local bodies of endowment monies, pensions, etc.) at £2.076,000. My estimate for the year was -£2,093,000. For the annual appropriations members are wood enough tc vote £2,438,000. I do not anticipate, however, that the final expenditure will reach more than £2,400, 00"(). PUHLIC WORKS FUND. Part One of this fund commenced the year with a balance of £32,150, and also received £150,000 from the Consolidated Fund surplus of the previous year. Other miscellaneous receipts swelled the available balance to £190,413. Dur my the year we were able to raise £750,000 "of the £1,000,000 authorised under " The Aid to Public Works and Land Settlement Act, 1896," and of this £375,000 was credited to Part 1, making the total receipts, including balance brought forward, £571,413. The expenditure, after the imprests have been duly accounted for, is estimated at £420,655, leaving a balance of £150,758. £250,000 has still to be raised under the Act I have just mentioned, so there will be further funds available for this account to the amount of £125,000, which, with the amount in haud and the usual assistance from the consolidated fund, should be amply sufficient for our requirements durine the coming year. Part 2 has a balance of £13,900 to begin the year with. The expenditure will be charged so as to clear off this balance. This account is now practically merged in Part 1, where further appropriations for the North Island Main Trunk Railway have been provided. The Lands Improvement and Native Lands Purchase Accounts have also been placed in funds to the amount of £187,500 each through the raising of three-quarters of a million under the Aid to Public Works and Land Settlement Act, and with the proceeds of debentures amounting to ±52,000 raised under the Act of 1894. The estimated expenditure of the Lands Improvement Account ia set down at £109,000, leaving a balance of £134,000 to go on with. In the Native Lands Purchase Account the expenditure is estimated at £127,000, leaving a balance of £97,200. As I have before mentioned, there is still a balance of a quarter of a million to be raised under the Aid to Public Works and Land Settlement Act, and when the proceeds have been received the Land Improvements Account and the Native Lands Purchase Account will each be entitled to be credited with £62,500. Of the £250,000 to be raised with these sums available I am satisfied that the works in progress to improve and open up the roading of the country will be steadily continued and further lands can be acquired from the natives and our engagements in this direction successfully carried out. Some large estates have been pur. chased under "The Land for Settlement Act, 1894," for which purpose £297,300 has been raised during the past year, and this amount, with some £20,000 derived from rents, has been sufficient to provide for an expenditure of £312,500, leaving a balance in hand of £6000. The surplus of the Consolidated Fund amounted to £340,000, of which I hope to be able to aid the public works expenditure to the amount of £200 000, leaving £140,000. The balance of the Public Works Fund was £150,000; proportion of balance of loan, £125,000 ; aid from Consolidated Fund, £200,000 ; total available balance for the current year, £222,000. The balance of the Native Lands Purchase Account was £97,000 ; proportion of balance of Loan, £62^500; aid from Consolidated Fund, say, £25,000 ; total available balance for current year, L 184.500. In case the available balances of these accounts should not prove sufficient for the expenditure, which it may be found absolutely necessary to incur with this extra assistance, it is quite certain that I shall have plenty of funds to carry on the Public Works Service during the current year. The funds in respect of our loan accounts are ample, and will cover all possible requirements. The receipts for the past year were £4,796, 000. After a number of deductions the total estimated receips, £2,504,000 ; estimated expenditure £2,441,000, leaving an excess of receipts L 63.000.