COLONIAL ACCOUNTS.

New Zealander, Volume I, Issue 51, 23 May 1846, Page 2

COLONIAL ACCOUNTS.

At length, the mysterious, deceptive system, hitherto pursued in this colony, as regards its | Finance, is superseded by ability, competency, and honest disclosure of real facts and plain figures, with promptitude, at those periods at which it is but common justice to the settlers the publication should be made. Those who have been long in the Colony will remember that the Estimates — fallacious as they were well known to be, by their authors, — were the only intimation or idea of the Revenue and Expenditure, which the Local Government ever condescended to impart to the settlers. These estimates were a perfect farce ; but they were brought before the Legislative Council, and passed, with all the mockery of apparent, intended economy and truth. During any current year, if the strict observance in expenditure, to the limit prescribed in any department, was questioned, — or, the amount, from, any particular branch of revenue, was doubted — by the press — and the publication of the actual facts and figures called for, those charged in the Government departments with finance and acconnts, shrouded themselves in their official panoply, disdaining all explanation, and endeavouring to have it generally taken for granted, that official arithmetic and mode of keeping accounts, was a science far beyond the comprehension of the vulgar multitude, and could only be attained and understood by those who were initiated into its freemasonry. Thus, — at the end of the session of the Legislative Council in 1842, was published, in the printed minutes, the cctual amount of Revenue and Expenditure for the year 1840 ; and which, we very much question, if any one ever troubled himself to wade through the crude and con'used mass of items of which it was composed. In truth, the Colonial Accounts have, undoubtedly, until the arrival of the present ' Governor, been kept in such manner, that their quarterly publication was impossible; and from the incapacity of those, under whose management they were, the very great mischief and confusion were continued. We have often made the Colonial Accounts subject of our remarks — and have contended, that if a proper, sensible, intelligible system was adopted, and the accounts regularly and truly kept ; that the public could have, very soon after the expiration of every quarter, as in England, a correct statement of the revenue and of the expenditure of the colony. "We are, most triumphantly, borne out in all our previous observations, and animadversions, by the Government Gazette, published on Thursday last, and which will be found in our columns this day — proving, that with pioper ability and efficiency, there is no difficulty whatever in the only true system of Government Finance. This Gazette contains some most important and satisfactory documents, relating to the financial state of the colony, and deserving of the serious investigation of every settler : and we shall remark upon them, in succession, first observing, that all are deserving of high commendation, for the masterly manner in which they have been abridged, under different heads, so that they are rendered perfectly intelligible. Instead of a mass of confused items and figures, as formed the three quarterly returns to October 31st, 1845, published in the Government Gazette of December last, we have Accounts and Returns, methodically arranged under distinct heads, with items and sums clear and comprehensible. The first of these official documents is the " Statement shewing the amount of Debentures in circulation on the 30th April, 1846." — This is a perspicuous account, shewing the amount in circulation on the 31st December, 1845 ;—; — the issue of each description, between the Ist January and 30th April, 1846 ; — and likewise, those withdrawn from circulation, either by payment for revenue, or in exchange for the funded Debentures. It appears by analysis of this account, that between the 15th November, — the date of the Statement put forth by the Colonial Treasurer of the Assets and Liabilities of the Colonial Treasury, — and the 31st December, 1845, there were old Debentures withdrawn from circulation to the amount of £10,193 4s. 4.d., and between the Ist January and 30th April, 1 846, and there have been a further withdrawal of the same description, — by payment for revenue or in exchange for others bearing larger interest, — to the amount of £12,462 lbs, Qd., making the total amount withdrawn, since the arrival of the present Governor, d£22,G55 19s, 4c?. ; leaving,

at the present time, in circulation of that description of Debenture, the sum of £14,159 ; of which amount, c£1,296 does not carry interest. The total amount in circulation, at present, is between Twenty-five and Twentysix Thousand Pounds.— £9,Bs6 Us. 6d. bearing 8 percent; — and <£14,548 18s. sd. carrying 5 per cent interest ; — the annual charge of Interest being about £1,500. The Return of the Revenue, for the year 1845, clearly proves how fallacious have been all the former Estimates of Probable Revenue,, annually concocted by the Local Government ; — and it likewise shews how enormous the expenditure must have been last year ; — and the more startling fact that the real revenue of the colony was only about one-fourth of its actual expenditure. The official account in the Gazette, givea the Revenue for each settlement in the northern and southern divisions of the colony ; but we shall transpose the items and figures, in order to shew the total from each source of real Revenue — not receipts in aid of — throughout the whole colony.

We cannot but observe, that this, we presume, correct account of the actual receipts, exposes a most egregious error in the three quarterly returns from Ist January to 30th September, 1845, published on the 15th November, 1845. It will be recollected that, although those returns were published, for each separate quarter, that we published an abstract of the total amounts, in our journal of the 20th December last. On reference we find that the actual receipts from "Property Rate for the Three Quarters,"— was £1,457 Us. 2d. In the Return, for the whole year, the revenue under such head is only £796 12s. B^. This is rather a non seqiutur exemplifying, most clearly, how carelessly, inefficiently, and incorrectly the colonial accounts have been, hitherto managed. In order to shew how much the actual receipts have fallen short of their anticipated amount, we subjoin the official — " Estimate of the probable amount of Revenue for the financial year 1845 — 1846," as laid on the table of the Legislative Council by Governor Fitzroy in the session of last year.

In aid of the Revenue for the year 1845. there have been receipts to the amount of £38,745, proving that the Expenditure, during the year 1 845, exceeded the enormous sum of Fifty-two Thousand Pounds ! ! There is, also, in the Gazette, an account of the Revenue and Expenditure, for the first quarter in 1846, of the Northern Division, which affords matter for much consideration and remark, on various items ; but we must defer further observations until our next number. However, the publication, officially, of these plain, intelligible accounts, must be most satisfactory and cheering to the public ; not only as shewing the great reduction of the enormous issue of the paper currency ; but as an assurance of reformation and improvement, — so' long required but so long delayed, — in the management of the Finance and Accounts of this Colony.

£ s. Customs 8770 5 Property Rate 796 12 Licenses, Publicans' & Auctioneers' 1024 12 Fees and Fines 1134 11 „ ditto from Land Claims . . 613 5 Miscellaneous . , 153 8 d. 0 8 2 8 7 0 Total Ordinary Revenue £13092 15 1

Ordinary Revenue.

Toceeds of bales ot Urown and Occupation Licenses panels ; I 294 10 Total Revenue . £13387 5

Extraordinary Revenue.

Customs Land Titles and Crown Grants . Registry of Deeds Pees of Judicial and Police Courts Auction Licenses Publican's Licenses Incidental Receipts . 11,500 2,500 200 1,000 500 2,300 500 £18,500