THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 149, 15 June 1876, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

[Communicated.] ' No. v.; To those who have investigated the finances of New Zealand the inipera'ive nectssity of abolishincr the provinces :is as clear as daylight. We must have a new.loan, and we must have direct tax»t>on, and the lind' revenues will have to be given .as security for any fresh loan if it is to be had on anything like reaionable terms. To go into the London money market and ask for another four millions unlet* we can give some tangible* aecurity will simply be to put ourselves on a level with the South American Republics asto ternis. London capitalists, who think four,, millions a large sum even for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to spend over and above.his yearly receipts, would look aghast at the idea of a small colony like New Z.-aland spending more than Canada does. And certainly they would have some reason, for the money-has been goin? at a fri-ehtful rate this year. To tak* the ' Public Works Lo*n for example. In the Estimates for the yesr the expenditure v outof this loan and the General Purposes Loan, which by the 1 Appropriation Aot (No. xcviii. of 1875) are amalgamated, is placed at £666,663 0-» lld for the former., aud JEBO,OOO for the latter, m»kihg a total of £746,663 (seven hundred and forty-six thousand, six hundred and sixty-three pounds, as Mr Mantalmi would hava said, " Dem the icopptr_*.") r Tils actual expenditure from this loan as given in the quarterly abstracts up to the 31st March last was £2,686,337 19s 4d. We give the items extracted from the quarterly abstracts fiV. Z. Gazette No. 61, of 1875, and 3 and 27 of 1876):— ■ ; i

This, it must be remembered, is for three quartsrs only. Considering that the estimated expenditure for the who'e year out of these two loins was less than seven hundred and •fifty thousand, we cannot complain of having a stingy Government. Of course it may be said that, thi* doss not exceed, or, even reach, the amount authorised by ,'the Appropriation Aft, but then the Finance Minister expressly stated that although authority would be taken to spend the money it would be spread over • two years. The fact of the matter is that Ministers are bing constant'y presied on every sile to spend money; they are afraid of losing the support of the members for any. dietrict to which they refuse money, and so the expenditure goes on increasing, and there is no hope of retrenchment while the present system exists. The extravagance in every department of " tbe public service is frightful The number of engineers and assistant engineers employed under the Public Works Loan is 78. The engineers receive £600 or £700 a-year, with travelling allowances of £100, and the assissistants receive £300 or £400 a year; A few are not down in the estimates for the whole year. There are, in addition to the engineers an army of clerks, surveyors, draughtsmen, &c. It is impossible to check the expenditure in any way, or to decide what is, and wbat is not necessary, but occasionally we get glimpses which show some of the ways in whu h the money goeß. eg.:—there is an item (15, p. 426 of Appropriation Art, No. 98, 1875) — Mlkonui survey, £1,715 Ss This it appear-*, is for the survey of a water-race, and by the reports of the Engineer-in-Chief (p. 46, of the Pubic Works Statement, 1875). it further appears that " the length of the race wili be 15 miles." Now, £1,700 for a survey of 15 miles, seems a deal of money. At the usual rate of surveyors' salaries, it must have taken . either a very long time, or a great number of these gentlemen to survey these 15 miles. .It cost more than £114 per mile'to survey for that water-race. We should like to know a littte more about that Mikonui water race survey.* There is another i'em; which interests us greatly. We regret to be obliged to refer • again to the late Colonial Treasurer, and that unlucky financial statement of his; we entertain no animosity towards M»jor Atkinson; ■ our fetling. towards him are of the moßt amiable kind, ih fact the phrase *■< unrequited affection" would perhaps accurately express the nature of our aentimehts towards that gentleman. But, in the discbarge of a public duty, private fee'inga must be disregarded, and. with a lacera'ed and bleeding bent we ate compelled to Bhow up his littie mistakes. Now in the course ot his statement, the honorable gentleman casually mentioned thit the liabilities on behalf of our various loans, amounted to the sum of £3,349,457 16b. ld — a mere trifle, about which there was not tbe slighest necessity for entering into details. But one of those objectionable members of Parliament before referred to, wbo will not be satisfied with simply voting the money required by the Government, " wanted to know " what theße liabilities were, and moved for a return of them. In compliance with the motion of this very unpleasant person, who ought really to have been put down summarily if there had been a proper tone of gentlemanly feeling in the House of Representatives, a return was made, which gives as Jittk, information as possible. The item we hare referred to is, '■ Proportion of expenses of Waikato Volunteer Engineer °Militia, £12,000." Several interesting questions arise on tbis item, first, what is a " Volunteer Militia." We always thought the Militia aud Volunteers were two separate services, and that service in theone exempted from the other. Then, again, i 9 this " Waikato Volunteer Engineer Militia" a battalion, or a company, or what ? And if it costs twelve thousand pounds as a proportion ot the expenses, what is the total of the expenses, and who pays them ? Do the members who compose the W.V.E.M. defray the remainder of the expenses ? Or does wealthy Auckland, to whom twelve thousand is a mere trifle, contribute the balance ? But above all, what on earth do they spend the money on ? [TO BB CONTINUED.]

The Reefton boys (says the Inangahua Herald) have got hold of a game they call " nick-nock," wliich is played with a long piece of twine with a stone at the end of it. By attaching the end of.the string with a bent pin to the panels of a • door, they are able to stand at a distance and beat a tattoo on the door, and thus hoax the inmates. Their operations are carried on at night time, and they appear to bave been pretty, successful in scaring the residents. The other night they rashly selected the door of our office for their .enterprise,, but we. haven't lived in vain, and we kbow what " nick-nocking " is ; and .that's how it conies that we are possessed of a long piece of string with a stone. at the end of it, two rather tattered-looking boys' caps, and a wooden side-stick, with traces of human gore ori it.

I QFor continuation of Newt see fourth page.) J

*Of course everybody^ knowa all about Mikonui. Mikonui is. Mikonul is in the Middle Island of New Zealand. Any further enquiries would be Impertinent,

Quarter ending .- September, 1875, General Purposes L >an 13,584 18 5 Sept., 1875, Public Works Loan 733,285 2 3 Dec. 31,1875, Pnblic Work. Loan 979,728 7 4 March 31, 1876 959 739 II 4 Total ... £2 ; 686,337 19 4