THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 153, 20 June 1876, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

[Communicated.] No. VI. In taking particular cases of extravagance and dragging them to light, it must not be supposed that we have done more than just exhibit a sample, to use a mercantile phrase. The. accounts are kept in su-h a way that it ia impossible to do more. Take the Native Department for instance. Tre expenditure on these amiable beings is mixed up with almost eyer-y account,- The ''Native-Depart-ment" is only put down Jor .£36,091 in the Estimates, ibut io addition there ia expenditure under the Defence Loan. £65,000; the Armed Constabulary, £91,000; under the New Zealand Settlecntuts Acts, under the Lmd Fund, under the heading '• Roads;" in the Supplementary Estimates for Native Suho'ls, Native Coutingeucies (a trifle of .£3500), Native Land Court, additional cimpensition for losses sustained duriog Native disturbances in 1847, gratuities and pensions to widows, supplies to Natives, piymenta for Maori Dictionary and Grammar, Boads iu Native Districts (£10,000), ior ♦•uaauthoriaelex, penditure" £1473, and for services in excess of f.ppropriatiou, which we take to be a verv delicate distinction, £1,603— -these are some, but not all, of the headings under which expenditare for, or on account of, the Natives is to be discovered. It is out of the question io chec'c expenditure c irried on in this way. Any account may be charged to the public under euch as>Btem as tbis, or rather under such a want of system. One item in the unauthorised expenditure is Is 3d, another item is "£7030! for remission certificates. Taranaki *> The " unauthorised expenditure " for last financial je.r chargeable on the Consolidated Fund was £76,867, plus a further sum of £32 254 chargeable on the Public Works Account.. " The application of the said sums is h.reby sanctioned"— such is the brief language of the two Appropriation Acts Nos. 98 and 99 for 1875. Now let the reader reflect i"or a moment what this means. It means that eearly a hundred thousand pounds weie

iFor continuation of Newt see fourth page.)

1811

* pent last yeir without even going through the formality of asking Parliament to sanction it until it waß spent, and goodness knows 'it is but a formality. One hundred thousand pounds for our population would -"■be* about equivalent to eight millions sterling for the population of the United Kingdom. „;One cannot.imagine an English Chancellor of the Exchequer facing -the British Parliament, and calmly telling .them, as a mere detail, that the 'unauthorised' expenditure of the year, on little odds and ends, was over teight - millions. No ministry could st'tind against the storm of indignation that would be aroused; no majority of the House of Commons would dare to vote such a sum' without at the same time passing a.vote of cen&ure on the ministry. And yet here we find no notice t ken of it. Nobody B<y*J a word about. such an insignificant .trifle Economy ia any public department is impos- - Bible while this enormoiiß unauthorised expenditure is permitted Surely the Governor might interfere on such a matter as thjs What eaithly me he is of, unless he interposes his authority to present the Ministers from deliberately violating an act of Parliament, it •.is.oiffloult to see. •'We have now a few words to say about Railways. We never expected railways in New Zealand to pay even l'their working expens s, unless it were a few lines like the .^Lyttelton and Christchurch or Dunedin apd Port Chalmers lines.. Any one who will just take a look beyond New Zealand will soon learn that railways through purely agricultural district*), never pay. The Grand Trunk line' of: Canada is an example; the Grand; ,- Trunk, or .whatever it is called, irom Laun-j ceston to Hobarton is another; the rural bra-ches on the main lines in England: notoriously do not, pay; the Irish lioes, barely pay their expenses, and we: some of them are in a state of bankruptcy, .lt was not to be expected that; the Ne\v Zsaland lines would pay directly J Indirectly they would pay by opening up the E country, and affirding farmeis a'readier access to marki-ts aud ports. Aud if the General Government had had the Crown Lands' in its own bands, they would have .paid-by enhancing the value oi the Wasted of the Crown in the immediate neighborhood of the Knit way s. But then it should haver: been boldly stated thiit they would not: be considered or reckoned on as a source of t-Revenue, that; they would be for years to come an item oi expenditure, and that their, advantages .were to be looked tor in the in-! "Creaße oi trade and agriculture, and not"as a , .means of adding to the income ot the Consolidated Fund. Yet Major Atkinson, in -his 1 unlucky financial Statement (how he must wish that every copy of that document " had I perished from the gay and gladsome earthl' ) Major Atki Bon estimated that Hallways would produce during the year 1 '75-6, a net; gain oi fifty thousand pounds. This, ot. was on the supposition that the Gene-' 1 ral Government took over the Utago and; Can-erbuiy lints We cannot discover any amended estimate. Theesii.uat.d cosi<ot the blag.* an- C'Biit.-rbur> lines was £104,1)00,; „(iu round uutiibeis.) ihe actu-tl reoeipts ut .thi*..lines opeu for traffic for the quarters ending the a Ist ilarch last were £43,0:-4 13a; 6d. ihe actual expenditure ior the tame c period was ,£56,711 10s Id., showing a deficit: ou the three quarters ot more than £13,000., As the tiuvernor's speech states '• that the: Railways .already yield in excess of the, workingi expjnses, a material contribution; towards the intertst on the cost ot their con-; Btraetioo," we append the exact figures derived from the New Zealand Gazettes lormerly j .quoted :— % j

-We don't frame the Ministry for ehis, bus we do blume them for putting aud " blowing ".; i about the miserahlu little tramways they call: and the weakly, wretched abortions! ..they cull Lcoinotive engines, as if thoy would ever earn a dividend. What is the good of . running two trains a a day at the rate of 15 miles an hour t That will never catcb traffic, much leas create it. Run frtq tent trains at| luw rates, and j ou may develops a traffic that, . will at leaB r , pay working expenses. It would hare been much more useful have established; horte tramways on good metalled roads, "which could hare been, used for ordinary i traffic as well, and which farmers could bare: used for conveyance ot produce by having . ther waggon- wheels maae to fit the tram-: Queensland went in a few years ago tor &■ reckiess expenditure on E always — and what; '.was the conuequeac^ ? Souie of the Queens- ' l(»nd lines were pulled up, and the aleepers; sold for firewood 1 ; 4 ' [TO BE CONTINUED.] \

Receipts^ £ s. d. Qu.vrier ending Sept. 25, 1875 8,551 8 111 „ „ Dec, 25, 1875 12,647 5 111 t n » Mar. 31, 1876 21,895 18 8 ■\ ) ".. : , ' ' ' . , 13 6 i Expenditure— £ s. dj Quarter ending Sept. 1825— ! Advauces ... 4.916 5 8 : Expenditure 5,387 19 41 Quarter eiidiug Dec, 1875— Advances 7,061.10 Hi Expenditure... ... ... 15,546 12 5; Quarter endiug March, 1876— $'.' Advances > ... 9,837 5 6| Expenditure... . 13,961 16 3' Total £56,711 10 1