ACCOUNTS OF THE COLONY FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 397, 26 July 1866, Page 4

ACCOUNTS OF THE COLONY FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1865.

(From tbo Wellington Independent, I7t’a July.) The above accounts have been laid belurs the House of .Representatives in due course, and a copy has beeu xotvarded to wa by the courtesy of

the Colonial Treasurer. It might be expected that wo should add here, “ and we now republish them for the information of our readers,” only unfortunately as they cover seventy-three printed pages, we fear, first, few would read them, and, secondly, that fewer still would understand them. In fact, the only feeling produced in our minds by the attempt we have made to master them, is one of unmixed wonder at the “ heaven-bom” wisdom. which enables men upon whom the mantle of office falls, to come out at once as fullblown financiers. In one aspect, however, it seems less difficult to bo a Finance Minister than wo should have previously imagined, as, if any man were but to pour out upon some much enduring “House,” such a cataract of figures as these seventy-three pages supply, it is quite certain that he might talk finance until he appeared as learned as another Ricardo, while it might bo no more than that ho was as incomprehensible. Admitting then that we cannot give our readers even a synopsis of the contents of these elaborate and involved accounts, we will endeavor to cull out and present a few of the more salient points. One of the first things that strikes us is the large figures to which receipts and expenditure have reached. The Ordinary Revenue of the year is given as £738,720 14s 3d, and the Territorial Revenue as £330,052 10s lOd. Last year Mr Fitzherbert as Colonial Treasurer showed that the revenue had increased 262 per cent, between 1859 and 1865 ; but if we go back to the year in which representative institutions were first established in Now Zealand, 1853, we find the Ordinary Revenue for nine mouths was only £57,084 4s lid, equal to £76,112 6s 7d for the year j while the Territorial Revenue for the same nine months was £41,494 11s Bd, equal to £55,326 2s 3d for the year. In other words, the Ordinary Revenue has increased nearly ten-fold and the Land Revenue six-fold in the twelve years that had passed up to the date of these accounts. As the whole of the Land Revenue now belongs to the Provinces, their revenues have consequently increased in the proportion named. Thus, as they only received of Ordinary Revenue at the rate of £37,812 10s 9d for 1853, and should have received £341,143 8s 3d for 1864-5, it follows that (without the gold duty) their total revenue ought to have increased from £93,138 13s to £671,195 19s Id, or upwards of seven-fold, though it did not actually do this, because of the deductions that were made for supplementary expenditure. That the expenditure should go on increasing at an equal rate would of course be nothing surprising, but unfortunately it has increased iu a ratio which leaves the income altogether in the shade. Not only was the revenue expended or distributed, but no less than £862,520 10s lOd was expended out of loans, of which £337,055 15s 4d was for direct expenditure connected with the suppression of the native insurrection. Even the various accounts which arc classed under the head of “ deposits” now amount to a largo sum, the receipts under this head being £146,096 10s 3d, and the disbursements £128,529 Os 9d, while the debt to the Bank of Now Zealand, which on the Ist of July, 1864, was £733,181 13s 6d, was reduced to £428,991 6s Bd, the difference, £304,483 6s lOd, having been paid off out of amounts raised under the Lean Act of 1863.

If our readers do not feel their breath quite taken away by euch amounts as these appearing in the annual accounts of “one of Britain’s youngest dependencies,” they may perhaps be disposed to observe with pleasure what a wonderfully elastic power there is in the resources of the colony. True, it may be asked, “if it had not been for the gold-fields what would have been the position of the country ?” but the answer is that the gold-fields are a fact, and therefore it is of no use speculating as to what might have been the case if another state of things had prevailed. Again the question may he retorted, “What would have been the position of the country if it had not been for the war ? ” Let that source of expense be stopped, and all the loans that have been raised will be provided for, even if Ministers leave the Stamp Act in the pigeon-hole in which it has slumbered since the last session. We now look with interest for the Treasurer’s statement, which is promised in a few days, and for the accounts of the year which has just ended (which ascounts we hear are expected to he laid before the House during its present session), and hope not only that the year 1865-6 will bear favorable comparison with its predecessor, but that the year that is now commenced may be still more satisfactory, showing an increase of revenue, accompanied by an equally large diminution of expenditure.