FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 63, 13 August 1885, Page 2

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

(SUPPLEMENTARTO

(UNITED, TRESS ASSOCIATION.) Wellington, Wednesday. lii Committee of -supply, Wednesday, 12th August, 1885, by the Colouial Treasurer, the Hon Sir Julius Yogel. Mr. Haiulin :— lt will be remembered that the proposals of the budget resulted m an anticipated surplus of £32,158, this result was arrived at after provisioa was made for paying off £50,000 of the ; deficit of 1883-84. £6,500 on account of the first year's classification of the civil servants; and £75,000 for subsidise *9 )°9*} bp^e^^b-A ;Hpuse declined to, make the change m the tariff which we recommended, which would have left di an addition to Customs revenue of about :#Jft,piKkc^gextain^ alterations iwhiclr were made in-the Bill providing for an auieudtuent^f iUeVu-ccesWn dftti«* will evolve a reduction of the Stamp Beveiiue of about £210,000. 1 do^not feel itspf^afe^totrely^Qn quite to- much reriftiiUj! from the railways as we* anticipated; they will realise more if the price of gxaiu rises, but as it tfs I think it safer to be prepared for a less amount of iiwt.- revenue than waß anticipated. The loss frojfi this spurjje fsefc dowa^it £47,000, which means less receipts the extent of £77,000, and less expenditure to UißVum of £19,000; we have, therefore, the bndget disturbed to the extent of CusUius Revenue; £70;0Q0; Stamps, £30,000 ;■ Ka«lway;(netiuclutjlkije reduction expeilditu>e, and receipts) £47,000 : ; , t0ta1, , {The :SuppHintititaryf Estimate's will not, Fanticip»Ur : " exceed £12,000, so itUafc I snail have to provide m all from rarious source! £159,000 to make up,fniS : ,Atnount. The supplies to which I iiay^^p^ipusly refrrred, at once prpvi^di£32;oQO : and it l.ay already been announced that the Go"-, vc-rnruent intend not Iq pro Tide for the deficit due 1883-34 ihis^eaiv ask that the di-ficioii^KlJsialr^y? authorised for this defipit^ee^lid^^til the 30tli Juno/ IBBfep has a|so tie^itateii that we propose^ to, oharge : |<s4itSi Public Works Fund i.'ph.^ acotfultiifcbf Vextergal defence/ ; thn > stateiriciif Pwhieh have been made as, to the tatilajg^t of reveuue, are grossly ina^ura^ for example, I have seen it stated- thaifbr the three iUtns, of Customs Railways, and Stamps, the reveii ue actually: collected for the four months eudiug "July 31«t is less by £70,000 than the 'estimated revenue. The' fa^t hovriver, is that on these items the lossy' Iv the estimated amount for the, following months is only £21;Q00, Some part.;6f - the 'receipts, Jiowerer, include Customs ' Revenue paid m anticipation of '/increased' duties. Viewing all the conditions I have thought it prudent to provide for the diminished revenues, which I have already stated, although these/ red uctious are not considerably larger than ion the receipts of the first four months; It ii with regret I announce that Government do not feel themselves justified m proceeding with the classification of the Civil Servants this year, seeing the ex-: tent to which their anticipatiotfs of revenue have been disturbed, they do uot think It would be acceptable to the House or to the country that they should undertake for tha n«xt few years the liability to additidnal . expeuditiiw, . which classification m any shape would undoubtedly pntaili The nitist; however remember that a certain amount of increases' on present salaries is /nanded iii barejjiistice to many : ill paj^ bfficeiß." Instead of the. £6,500 increase' they proposed to ask, they will ask for £2.500, biie thousand pounds- of the amount they propose, shall be allocated to the Post Dffice, and the balance to other Departnieuts^ but via 'tiir. case to ofiicers whoso salaries .exceed £250 ; » year. The Government feel as strongly as possible the desirability of- retrenching llie expenditure to the utiiiost extent possible consistent with efficiency^ as I pointed out when T made the Financial Statement ; the costly nature of Civil , Servicejdepeuds largely pn the conditions "with >-hich officers appointments are ; hedged around; what with leaveß of absence, and' allowances the dispensing with officers is' attended with extra, expenditure for a considerable period, and the cases are nuni-roijs iv which officers dispensed with J f ilterjbacic intp the {service. Of coursb tlie>- rights of olccw already m the service, cannot be interfered| with/ but we shall bring iv a Bill providing for different terms of engagement.for oflßccrs taken into the service after the passage"^ thereof. '* The .amalgamation of large departments will be another source of economy which should be kept iv mind when "Under Secretaries retire; Another plan iye /have iv .view, which will conduce^ both to econ. bmy and efficiency, is to train up cadets into an acquaintance with the dutiea of several deDartineiitß, with a view to amalgamating the diUies of ofticers ia different parts of the country and lesseniiig their number. Wo have anxiously soarclicri the, estimates over with the oorb r ject, of finding items for saying expend!tur». I regret we are not able to do much, We are; willing to reduce the vote for Arnied Conßtahulary and defence to £10,000,, and I think we may save some thousands expenditure m other departments without, however, taking lew votes than those set down, it will be necessary instead of; making; the Property Tax jd to add an eighth and to make seven-eighths of a penny. \I inajr observe also that under the new Property Ass(essment Bill, expected that £10,000 will be added to' the amount of the Pro- : perty_ Tax estimated m Financial Statement. I hrive already shown we require, to make up for diminwhed re-: venue, and f or. supplementary estimate*. The various items m aid of this to which ,1 have .separately refered, may now bo 'summod up as 'follows : — Surplus shown by Financial Statement, £32,000 ; part •£ deficit, 1883-84, postponed, £500,600 ; external defenoe.chaged to Publio Works " Fund, £2o,000 ; savings m the A^m^dr Constabularr and defence, ~£'lo,oo6; r*. duction invote for Civil Service classification, £4000 ; property tax, under-esti-mated, £10,000 ; property tax, adm'tional one-eighth of a penny, £47,000; total £178,090: This will leave a surplus of £l9 r OOO after providing for supplement, ary estimates to the extent of £12,000, and I hope they will not exceed that amount. I would have preferred adhereing to the arrarigement^proposed ijy the Budget, arid I believe that to haye done so would have been more for the interest of the colony. The substitute, howevr, of an additional eighth of apenqy to. the property tax is not yery qnerpug . and with its aid we have the right tq expect a small- surp.hw at" eiid of tKe year. Class. 7, .Steu»p.' ; B.epartment, £7291; Land and Heed Registry:---£18,(535; miscellaneous services, £525. Class G, Customs offices, ond services, £43,941 ; Marine aqd Harbors, £34,93,3'j andnusccllaneous services, £8000 /passed without alterations. •" -'" "' ' ■-, ' Mr S,tout moved tq regort prqgroaa, wh^ich was agreed tq. "• : '' •- Hbtfse'rosQ at \'2A§ aim.