THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 140, 5 June 1876, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

[Communicated.] No. 11. " Prom the peculiar nature of our Constitution, it must be a very great difficulty for persons at a distance to understand our finances, or eren to ascertain with any accuracy what yearly revenue we have." So said the then Colonial. Treasurer in his Financial {Statement made before the House of Representatives last session. Major Atkinson might with perfect truth have included persons in the colony amongst those who found it a " very great difficulty to understand our finances." Indeed we have never met with any one who could pretend to any knowledge of our financial conditio*. Most people treat it as a riddle too hard to be solved, and " give it up." The complexity of the public accounts is such that it would seem to be intended to prevent the people from learning how the money is spent, and whence the revenue is derived. Take for example the following account of the receipts of the Trust Fund for the quarter ending March 31st last ( 1876):—

£57.79* 2 11 These are the receipts. Now what information do these items convey to the readers of this paper? As to those marked (1) and (2) one may ask, interest on what? Investment in what? How can an investment be placed among the receipts? And what in the world is tho " Outlying Districts Sale of Spirits Act," that it should be an item of revenue? The account of the expenditure of this same Trust Fund is just as mysterious. The Outlying Districts Sale of Spirits Act account is debited with £50 16s; the " unclaimed balances " must have been claimed in part, as they figure for £51 lis 6d ; "Investment" appears to have cpßt £13,000, while " Native /Wairarapa five per cent Account" costs £9 19s ; "Post-Office Savings Bank," which figures for only £11 6s in the receipts shows on the expenditure side £10,137 lis 3d — a difference which is most puzzling. In the course of these papers we shall quote chapter and verse for every statement made, but, if a mistaken inference is drawn from the figures given, it will not be done wilfully or from a desire to make things out to be worse than they really are, but simply because of the extraordinary complexity of the accounts. . The Government of New Zealand has, unfortunately, we think, adopted the French device of a budget for ordinary and one for extraordinary expenses. In the days of the third Napoleon, this plan was denounced by all the Liberal Opposition as a mere Bcreen for extravagance and peculation. That these were prevalent under the Empire there cannot be a doubt, and that the peculiar financial arrangements rendered it virtually impossible to prevent them, there also cannot be a doubt. Of course nothing of the kind occurs in the best of all possible colonies, and our expenditure, large as it may seem to feebleminded individuals, is nothing more than is absolutely necessary. However, it must be acknowledged that there is a tendency among Government officials to throw anything that would be likely to provoke opposition or comment upon the budget of extraordinary expenses, which is here defrayed entirely out of loans. It keeps down the apparent expense of the department, which figures for a modest sum in the estimates ; it prevents enquiries from those disagreeable members of Parliament who think it their duty to know how the . money goes (as if they had anything to do beyond voting it) ; and it enables subordinates to put in items which even the most genial and easy of departmental chiefs would demur to, if he had to defend them in Parliament. To give an example : In the accounts for the financial year ending June, 1875, the disbursements of the Consolidated Fund are divided into about a dozen different classes, such as Civil List, Charges of the Public Debt, Charges under Permanent Acts {i.e., pensions), Public Departments, &c. One of these classes (No. VIII., page 9, B, of Financial Statement) is entitled *• Public Domains and Buildings." It figures for the extremely modest sum of £13,632 2s 7d in the account of expenditure. Now, a sum like this for a colony like New Zealand is very small, and one naturally congratulates oneself on the economy with which our

public domains \ and buildings are^ managed. But oh referring to page 15 of the above quoted document, we find under the heading of "' General Pur- . poses Loan, 1873," a little item which, reads thus:—-. . ;.;p Public Buildings ... j64K,«53 0 8 . sd.^ Simplex munditiis I Nothing more ! In the Estimates for the present financial year Class VIII. appears (page 62) for £23,351 4s. Still modest, although much larger than last year! Before the Appropriation Bill had passed, the twenty-three thousand had grown into twenty-nine thousand,— or ' more than double the expenditure of the previous year. But there was another Appropriation Bill, for expenditure out of loans, and in this our modest department gets a vote of £112,656, making a grand total of £142,097 4s — (See Appropriation Act f No. 98, p. 429; and Act No. 99, p. 488). Besides these, under the heading " Miscellaneous" we find " Eent of Government offices, £500; rent of residences for Ministers, £650; "Wellington Botanical Gardens, £300. Now if the Minister had come boldly forward and said, "We .spent fifty-nine thousand pounds on Public Building and Domains last year, and we want one hundred and forty-three thousand this year," members would have opened their eyes, and possibly insisted on the vote being reduced. Such disagreeable results are avoided by adopting the system now in use. To take another example, we find in the accounts for 1874-5 under the heading of " Class 111, Postal and Telegraphic," an expenditure of £184,516 3s 6d (page 9 B Financial Statement) as part of the expenditure of the Consolidated Pund. At p. 13 we find an additional item for "Telegraph extension " paid out of the Immigration and Public Works loan of £61,746 15s 3d ; and again another item at p. 15, paid out of the General Purposes Loan, 1873, of £6,640 2s lOd, and again at p. 24 another item of £11,319 7s 8d for unauthorized expenditure, making a total of £264,222 9s 3d. Por the present year the sum appropriated out of the Consolidated Fund for the Postal and Telegraph Departments amounts to £222,979/ of which the Telegraph Department receives £75,511, but in addition to this there is an appropriation from the Public Works loan of £29,700 for telegraph extension, making a total for telegraphs of £105,211, and a grand total for the two departments, Postal . and Telegraphic, of £252,679, or nearly the same as last year. Besides all this, £39,291 of the expenditure on Public Buildings was for Postal and Telegraph Offices. All this may be perfectly legitimate and proper, but it certainly looks a big lump of money, and if it were asked for in one sum would arouse enquiry. It might occur to ask whether a wealthy and influential constituent or private; friend does not sometimes get a postal and telegraph office erected rather more for his personal convenience than for that of the public. [*ro be continued.]

Armed Constabulary Reward JS *. d> Fund Account 39 0 9 Foreign Telegrams ... ... 1,425 18 11 Government Insurance ... 19,271 16 3 Grey River Railway repayment ... 4 0 0 Interest (I) 3,010 16 11 Investment (2) . ... ... 26,033 2 7 Lind Assurance Fund ... 574 12 10 Native Reserves Account .. 2,483 13 8 Outlying Districts Sale of ' Spirits Act 3 16 6 Post Office Saving Bank ... 11 8 0 Railways Reward ' Fund ... 14 7 9 Temporary Deposits 4.537 19 8 ITnclaimsd Balances 362 9 1