NEW ZEALAND FINANCE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 782, 22 December 1876, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND FINANCE.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sir, —As I showed the public in my last political letter, that I scorned to take money from any one for teaching them our actual cash, position so I have now the pleasure, without a fee, to show that position to the whole of the New Zealand public, including also the members of the House, and amongst these latter those to whom Mr Montgomeryalluded os not understanding our accounts. I trust to assist the Ministry and the Opposition in coming to a true decision for the geuex’al good of the coxxntry. Gazette No 58, 2nd November, 1876*, gives us the quarter’s accounts to 30th September’. In the pxxblic account, p. 741, we have a statement of our receipts and expenditure in the consolidated fund, apart from the public works of the country. This account shows a balance of cash on hand, at 30th September last, of £38,614, but this is a fiction, because a close examination of the account shows that thei’e was only £391,450 cash received, while £446,857 cash was spent; leaving the account bankrupt to the extent of £55,407 on the quarter. This bankruptcy of the running accounts of our Government is covered up by the taking of £150,000 cadx out of the loan raised for making railways, and using the loan to pay the interest due on Vogel’s Mortgages {i.e. the New Zealand debt). In plain words, we have swallowed up the £69,678 that we started the year with, and and we have overrun the constable, as well, £55,407 in three months. The items belonging to the old year, 18756, stand thus ;

So that the balance at beginning of this year is all spent except £1665, instead of giving us £50,000 to the good, as the Ministry stated (seemingly in error). Turning to the public works account, we find a very nasty state of things : we have borrowed on our Imperial guaranteed debentures £320,000, although Mr Stevens had very properly stated in the House “he hoped they would not be touched.” And we have borrowed this money to pay the interest on the debt by advancing £150,000 to current expenses account. As to the method of keeping these accounts. System is a great point in business, and these accounts are not kept upon a proper system. Each account should be balanced purely on its merits, and all advances should be carefully excluded and kept in a separate advances account. I suppose (without malice) that Messrs Atkinson and Bowen were afraid to publish to the world that they were unable to pay last quarter’s interest on the loan without taking the loan itself to do it. So they very improperly mixed up the quarter’s receipts with £150,000, which they seized out of the loan for the purpose; and thus they show a sham surplus of cash that was really not in hand upon that account at all. Remember, this consolidated fund account is our vital account. To read last year’s Hansard would make any man, of business-like habits, tremble for the country. Talking lawyers, red-hot politicians, men of no weight, or thought in finance, spent our time and our money in a way that richly deserves the lash of hearty satire. Let the public take this letter home to itself, read it, and understand our accounts, then they will put in men, who can join with such members as do understand, to redeem this country from the disastrous results of Vogel’s indiscriminate borrowing and expending. Yours, &c, J. W. TREADWELL.

£ s. d. Cash on hand, 30th June ... 69,978 13 3 Recoveries last year’s account 3,222 15 2 72,900 8 5 Spent this quarter on 1875 account 71,233 17 3 Difference last year’s items... 1,665 11 2