PARLIAMENTARY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 16, 17 October 1879, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY.

. . — » FINANCIAL STATEMENT. ' '

The Hon Major Atkinson, in moving 1 * for leave to introduce the Public Revenues Act Amendment Bill, said tho circumstances were of an exceptional character. '•' Me had to disregard the usual rule that the statement of tho year should be a carefully-pre-pared document, and submitted to the Govornment. The finance had not been dealt with at all for li months. Parliament was in the durk for that time. Ho would now submit a broad system of finance, so as to enable members to turn over in their minds what was beat to be done. In 1878*9 tho Treasurer estimated he would begin tbe year with a surplus of £120,468. The actual amount realised wju £116,044. The expemHturo propose.l was £4,210,000 ; the actual expenditure, as placed before the House in the next session by the tlion Treasurer, Sir George Grey, was £3,652,048; but the apparent saving of £558,000 was reducible by £348,219 of liabilities; the payments for and made within the year amounted to a little over £4,000,000. "Tne revenue for 1878-9 was estimated at £4,045,537; the actual sum realised being £3,751,598; leava deQciency or £233,939 at (he end of tho yeor. They began the year with £116,000 to their credit and ended, after taking credit for all aßSets and providing for liabilities, with a deficit of £131,824. Ha called attention to the following items of expenditure to show that t hey were not exercising any economy in the public service. They had not retrenched in any one way, and it would be soen that some very decided step would have to be taken to place finance on its proper footing. In law, justice, customs, &c , for the year 1877-S the vote amounted to £876,000 ; that was an expenditure of £10,000 more than voted. In 1878-9 the same departments got a vote of £903,000, whereas the act ual expenditure was £956,000. The Native Department was next referred to. In 1876-77, the cost was £34,000 ; in 1 877-8, £43,000; and in 1878-9, it amounted to i' 58,000. The salaries last year were £15,000. The expi nditure f or 78-9, as estimatei by the late Government, was £3,973,425. This did not include £140,<'0() for Continent Defence, proposed to be charged to the loan, nor did it include £12-5,000 of Local Revenue, which the Go vernment merely Jcollected and paid. The expenditure as statod, included £1,325,373 for interest and sinking fund, £63.840 the 20 per cent, oi land, and £279,527} the

amount of subsidies. The ee&mat.e of « revenue by tho late GoverSuient wa» £3,442,000 made up of taxational, 6Bo,ooo, for servicdS £1,362,000, from lanti aftMO.OOO,. but deducting this revenue from the stated expenditure there was left a deficit of £532,034, and adding to this the deficit from 1878-9 of £ 1 31,824, there was left the deficit to be met of £663,858; but in fact he feared, with the experience of which his Government had had of the receipts for the first quarter, that the esliirate made by the late Government of the current year's revenue would not be realised. Revising the estimates as carefully as he had been able, he feared the veceipts would not exceed £3,193,900, — made up of taxation £1,512,000,0n account of services £1,801,600, and from land £380,000; this would increase the deficit already stated by £249,000, ani would leave a total deficit to be provided for this year of £912,000. It was not his business at present to suggest a remedy or to give reasons why he anticipated such results, as the House would oDly expect from him a statement of results. When he took possession of the Treasury the public accounts stood thus. The receipts during the quarter had not come up to the payments made by a sum of £330,000. The late Government had issued £400,000 of deficiency bills, and used the whole of the proceeds. No provision had been made for paying subsidies to local bodies now due, or to meet othtr payments which it was absolutely necessary for them to make. To provide for these they proposed to take" power to issue a further £20U,0< 0 of deficiency bills.in order to enable them to carry on the necessary services of the colony up to October oc 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 temporary remedy, so as to enable the House to take time to determine as to how the matter should be finally disposed of. '1 hat 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 £507,001 nominally, but of this £300,000 was due for outstanding debts, so that in ideality it was no better than so much money paid away. So that they only actually began the yenr with £207,000 to the good. Tho expenditure for the last quarter was £712,000, co that the iate Government had actually spent to 30th September last half a million of the five million loan. Then, again, he found, upon enquiry, that their engagemonts entered into to the 30th December next amounted to £733,000 more, and further engagements for which they would have to pay on the 30th June next £921,818 more; in other words up to the 30th June next, public works they were already committed to, without aiiy new 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 very large. He 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 a sum of £200,000 for the purchase of native lands ; of that, £36,000 had been spent already, and further engagements had been made up to the end of this jcar to spend £84,000. They had » further liability upon these lands -which apparently they had engaged to fulfil, amounting to £957,000. In round fi^Cxes^a mil- A lion mo r e had to be provided for, to^om^^ plete the purchase of the3e land*. The/ "^ aUo had contracts on public works upon which there would be due on the 30th Juoe;v. 1880, the sum of £128,815. What he r* desired to point out to the House was this : they had actually spent up to the end of September half a million, whioh, together with their engagements, would amount to a total sum of two milions", 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 tho 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 wns the financial position of the Colony at the present time. He wished the tale he had to tell bad been a little more cheerful ; it was clearly, however, the bounden duty of honorable members to face the whole question of colonial finance at once. '1 ho position was undoubtedly a grave one, and would demand immediate attention. It seemed to him that it was absolutely necessary that at tho present time not only a capable SRnistry, but likewise one sufficiently strong to legislate for the interests of the Colony, and not merely for those of a party, should be in power. It was their boundeh duty, he submitted, to dispense with party tactics, and turn their undivided Aj. attention immediately to these seriou6 diflicullies, and in some way devise a scheme to get the finances of the Colony placed on ;,a -"Sounder and better position than they stood at present.