THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY MONDAY, MAY 10, 1875.

Grey River Argus, Volume XVI, Issue 2106, 10 May 1875, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY MONDAY, MAY 10, 1875.

A short time ago we took the opportunity of examining the financial condition •of the Province of Westland as disclosed by ihe report of the Provincial Auditor for the year ending December 31, 1874 ; and we promised that on a future occasion we would f ollow up the subject by an investigation of the estimates of receipts and the authorised expenditure for the current year. It will be remembered that we asserted that according to the evidence of the Provincial Auditor, the actual ordinary expenditure of the Province exceeded its ordinary revenue by something like LIB,OOO a year, and that but for special allowances and the timely assistance of the General Government, the Province would be absolutely unable to meet its engagements. At that time the Council was in session, but not a word either from within or without the Council was said in denial of our general statement. We now propose to review the financial results of the last session, and in doing so we invite our readers to remember that the question of the finances of the Province received scarcely any attention at; the hands of the Council; and that all that the responsible Executive did was to present an elaborate and fallacious "financial statement," framed either in ignorance or with the direct purpose to deceive. It is necessary that we should commence by a reference to the results of the last year, so far as they affected the estimates previously accepted by the Council. Every branch of the revenue fell short of the estimate. The gold duty estimated to produce L9OOO only yielded L 780 9; other goldfields revenue estimated at L 5400, amounted to only L 514 0; licenses although' nominally producing L 10.239 as 'against LBOOO estimated, actually fell short of the estimate, as against the apparent excess of L 2239 there was a refund of licenses during the year to the amount of L 3233, so that in fact there was a deficiency of L 994. The land receipts estimated at L 12,000, produced only L4796?<alhd : the same ratio of deficiency was observed, in regard to incidental items. As a matter of absolute fact, upon an estimate" of ordinary revenue of L 39,100 there was a deficiency of L 8979, or at the rate of nearly 20 per cent. In order that there may be no mistake upon this matter, we give the items of ordinary revenue as supplied by the Provincial Auditor : — Estimated Actual Amount. Amount. Gold duty ... ... £9000 £7800 Miners' rights and Gold-fields revenue 5400 5140 Licenses* 8000 10239 Incidental 1250 893 Tolls 3500 3488 Land revenue ... 12000 4796 *■ The apparent increase on this item is due to the necessity of extra payments for licenses consequent upon the coming into operation of the new Licensing Act, but as we have before explained refunds to the amount of L 3233 had to be made, which converted the apparent excess into a deficiency of L 994. We take no account whatever of the special fundsjand allowances ; we are simply dealing with the ordinary revenue. Such then were the results of the calculations of the Provincial Government for the year 1874, and it would be supposed that with the experience of that year to guide them the Executive would nave endeavored to base their estimates of income for the current year upon more moderate expectations — unless, indeed, some unforseen favorable change in the affairs of the Province had taken place. We are not aware that the outlook for 1875 was much brighter than the actual facts of 1874. Nothing had occurred to warrant any exceptional degree of prosperity, whilst the symptoms were indicative of at least a period of stagnation if not of actual retrogression. The mining population was not increasing, the production of gold was steadily declining, the demand for land had slackened — partly because the most'available blocks had already been purchased, and partly because of the prevailing scarcity of money. These were the circumstances under which the Executive met the Provincial Council, and yet they and the Superintendent deemed themselves justified in submitting . estimates of income which they must have known there was not the remotest probability of realising. We will just put some of the items as estimated side by. side with the actual receipts for 1874, so that our readers will be better able to judge :— A ctual. Estimated. 1874. 1875. Gold duty ... ... £7800 £9000 Miners' rights and Gold-fieldß revenue 5140 - 5700 Licenses, &o 7006 9000 Incidentals ... ... 893 1000 Tolls ... 3488 3000 Land revenue ... 4796 12000 That is to say, that they pretended to, calculate upon an increase of L 10,577 upon the above few items ! We earnestly desire that these brilliant anticipations will be realised, but at the same time we are positive that they will not. With the export of gold declining steadily as the returns show, where are the extra 12,0000z of gtild to come froni that are to make up tlto additional revenue put down as expected from gold duty ? And what reason is there to r expect L2OOO additional from

licenses, when it is well known that the tendency is to reduce the number of public-houses 1 But the wildest estimate is the L 12,000 from land sales and rents, which sum includes L2OOO put down as a separate item as the expected receipt from the sale of land in the Southern district. This last portion of the sum may be realised by the exercise of the preemptive rights of the pastoral lessees, and the sale of town lands at Jackson's Bay, but we are confident that the remaining LIO,OOO will not be forthcoming. It is notorious that the speculative appetite for land amongst local purchasers has either been appeased by the acquisition of the lands most favorably situated, or has, for the present at least, almost died away. The town lands are all sold, with the exception of the sections in the small diggings townships, which, if sold to-day, would only swell the revenue by a few hundred pounds. We calculate that the estimates of ordinary revenue submitted to the Council are over-estimated by at least LIO,OOO. Amongst the items of special revenue there appears the sum of L7OOO, being the balance of the special allowance from the General Government to the end of June, 1875. And the Executive, with a naivete which must vastly amuse the Colonial Treasurer when it comes under his notice, actually put down as an asset, " Allowance for halfyear on same basis, ending 31st December, 1875, L 5000." This is an act of assurance we have seldom seen excelled. Perhaps the special allowance may be continued, but there are possibilities the other way, but certainly expectations of this kind have no right to figure fn the estimates of a Government. The estimated income from all sources is put down at L 57,132 of which LI 4,000 is special allowance from the General Government. The ordinary revenue, we insist, has been miscalculated by fully LIO, OOO. The Council appropriated no less a sum than L 63,734 or L 6602 more than the estimated income, and if we strike out LIO,OOO for overestimated ordinary revenue, and the prospective LSOOO from the General Government, we arrive at a deficiency, staring us in the face, of L 21,602. This is no fancy sketch. The Council largely loaded the appropriation Bill with supplementary votes ; but taking the Government's own estimates of expenditure, there will be a deficiency of at least LI 5,000 in the revenue. Several questions suggest themselves to our mind : — How the Executive could contrive, and the Council accept, such misleading estimates ; and how, even accepting them as fair and probable, the Council could vote nearly seven thousand pounds more than, taking the most sanguine view, it was likely to have ; and what is to be the upshot of the whole matter ? It is absolutely certain that the Province cannot go on long in this manner; and it cannot always be a pauper on the hands of the General Government. If abolition come, let it come quickly, but if Provincial institutions are to continue to exist, the Government of Westland must be wrested from the hands which now hold it, or hopeless confusion and possible bankruptcy will be the inevitable result.