THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1764, 15 October 1879, Page 3

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Major Atkinson, in moving for leave to introduce the Public Revenues Act Amendment Act, said the circumstances were of an exceptional character. He had to disregard the usual rule, that the statement of the year should be a carefully prepared document and submitted to the Government. The finance had not been dealt with at all for fifteen months. Parliament was in the dark for that time. He would give a broad outline of finance so as to enable members to turn over in their minds what was best to be done. In 1878 the Treasurer estimated he would begin the year with a surplus of £120,468. The actual amount realised was £116,844. The expenditure passed was £4,210,000. The actual expenditure as placed before the House last session by tho then Treasurer, Sir G. Grey, was £3,652,048; the apparent saving of £558,000 was reducible by £348 219 of liabilities. The payments for and made within the year counted to a little over £4,000,000. The revenue for 1878-9 was estimated at £4,045,537. The actual sum realised being £3,751,598, leaving a deficiency of £293,939 at the end of this year. They began the year with £116,900 to their credit, and ended, after taking credit for assets and providing for liabilities, with a deficit of £130,824. He called attention to the following items of expenditure to show that they were not exercising any economy in the public service. They had not retrenched in any one way, and it would be seen that some very decided step would have to be taken to place the finance on its proper footing. In law and justice, customs, &0., for the year 1877-78, the sum voted amounted to £866,000. That was an expenditure of £IO,OOO more than voted. In 1878 79 the same departments got a vote of £903,000, whereas the actual expenditure was £956,000. The Native Department was next referred to. In 1876-77 the cost was £34,000, in 1877-78 £43,000, and in 1878-79 it amounted to £58,000. The salaries last year were £19,000; they were about the same for 1877-78, but in 1878-79 only £15,331 was voted for salaries, but the contingent expenses rose from £4893 in 1876-77 to £5767 in the next year, while for 1878 79 they were £16,741. The expenditure for 1878 79 as estimated by the late Government was £3,973,425, but that did not include £140,000 for contingent defence, which it was proposed to charge to loan; nor did it include £122,000 of local revenue, which the Government merely collected and paid. The expenditure as stated included £1,325,373 for interest and sinking fund, £63,540 the twenty per cent of land, and £259,527 the amount of subsidies. The estimate of revenue by the late Government was £3,444,000; made up from taxation, £1,582,000 ; for services rendered £1,362,000; from land, £500,000. But deducting this revenue from the stated expenditure there was left a deficit of £532,034, and adding to this the deficit from 1878 79 of £131,824 there was left the deficit to be met this year of £663,858. But in fact he feared with tho experience which this Government had had of the receipts for the first quarter that the estimates made by the late Government for the current year’s revenue would not be realised. Revising the estimates as carefully as he had been able, he feared the receipts would not exceed £3,193,900, made up of taxation £1,512,300, on account of services £1,301,600, and from land £380,000. This would increase the deficit already stated by £120,000, and would leave a tot»l deficit to be provided for this year of £911,000. It was not his business at present to suggest a remedy, or to give reasons why he anticipated such results, as the House would only expect a broad statement of results.

When he took possession of the Treasury, the public accounts stood thus : —The receipts during the quarter did not come up to the payments made by the sum of £330,000, The late Government had issued £400,000 deficiency bills, and had used the whole of the proceeds. No provision had been made for paying subsidies to local bodies now due, or to meet other payments which it was absolutely necessary for them to make. To make provision for these they proposed to take power to issue a further £200,000 of deficiency bills, in order to enable them to carry on the necessary services of the colony up to the month of October or November, and by that time he hoped the House would have determined how the deficiency was to be made up. It would be improper for the Government to do more than submit a mere temporary remedy, so as to enable the House to take time to determine as to how the matter was to be finally disposed of. That was his reason for asking the House to pass the Bill. Regarding the position of the Public Works account, they began the year with a credit to the department of £507,000 nominally, but of this £300,000 was due for outstanding debts, so that in reality it was no better than so much money paid away. So that they only actually began the year with £207,000 to the good. The expenditure for last quarter was £712,000, so that the late Government had actually spent to the 30th September last half a million of the new £5,000,000 loan. Then again, he found, upon inquiry, that their engagements entered into up to the 30th December next, amounted to £733,000 more, and further engagements, on which they would have to pay on 30th June next to £921,818 more. In other words, up to the 30th June next the public works they were already committed to, without any now ones being undertaken, would amount to £2,160,000 out of the £5,000,000. He was much startled

when he found the amount so Tory large. Ho had taken pains to see that it was correct, but he found that it was not possible to reduce the amount below what he had stated. Included in this £2,160,000 was the sum of £200,000 for purchase of Native lands. Of that £36,000 had been spent already, and there were further engagements up to the end of this year to spend £84,000. They had a further liability upon these lands, which apparently they had engaged to fulfil, amounting to £957,000. In round figures a million more had to be provided for to complete the purchase of these lands. They also had contracts on public works account upon the 30th June amounting to £1,281,815 more. So that one million would be required by the end of next June. What he desired to point out to the House was this. They had actually spent up to the end of September one quarter of a million, which, together with their engagements, would amount to a total sum of £2,000,000, and that before they knew whether the loan could be raised, not the slightest intimation having yet been received on the subject. He deprecated in strong terms the impropriety of pledging the credit of the colony in that way. He did not know how far the loan would go off. Fortunately the credit of the colony was good. Still that was no excuse for the course pursued in the matter by the late Government. Such then was the financial position at the present time. He wished the tale he had to tell had been a little more cheerful. It was clearly, however, the bounden duty of hon. members to face the whole question of colonial finance at once. The position was, undoubtedly, a grave one, and would demand their immediate attention, and it seemed to him that it was absolutely necessary that at the present time there should be a Government in power not only capable, but likewise one sufficiently strong to legislate, for the interests of the colony, and not merely for those of party. It was their bounden duty, he submitted, to dispense with party tactics and turn their undivided attention immediately to these serious difficulties, and in some way devise a scheme to get the finances of the colony placed in a sounder and better position than they stood at present.