Original Correspondence. THE ESTIMATES.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 343, 18 August 1849, Page 2

Original Correspondence. THE ESTIMATES.

To the Editor of the New Zealander. Sir.— Ebtimates have been laid before the Legislative Council, in which the expenditure is calculate! to exceed the revenue by more than £2000. So far from being suffered to exceed it, I maintain that our expenses ought to be reduced considerably below it ; for it u impoiBible to conceal from ourselves that we are in a dangerous financial position, and that nothing can save the colony from almost inextricable difficulties but a resolute and immediate contraction of the expenditure ; not by shreds and parings, not by decking the miserable salaries of clerks and underling 1 ;, but by cutting at the root of the evil. It is high lime to be setting our house in order. The home grant has alteady beeu diminished, and no little doubt ii felt but that, by the next vote of the House of Commons upon that subject which reaches us, we shall find ourselves mulcted of the whole, save and excepting only what is required for the payment of certain official salaries, whilst it is even possible tli.t the colony may find itself surcharged for what has bten already overdrawn. We have already been warned that the military • xpendituie will be greatly decreased, whilst, on account of the rapid emigration hmce to Cali'ornia, thsre it etery prospect of a serious falling off in the Customs duties. Permit me, therefore, to olFcr a few suggestious which, 1 thi. k, will be favourably received by jour readers, and which may prove suggestive to the unofficial Members of Council. It will be observe. 1 , in the first place, that a mystery has as yet been made of the gtneral colonial expenditure. Although it be a General Legislative Council that has been c»lled, the members are not supplied with returns of that expenditure (a poition of which the Province will have to pay) because a pro vincial budget merely is in question. The Southsrn Council, being itself merely provincial, is not suff red to call for those returns; so that, between the two, the general expenditure is not tiuched upon at all. Why should members of the legislature be asked for blind-fold votes ? Or how can they do their duty efficiently unless the whole financial question be t»hly exposed to them ? It there be nothing which will i.ot bear the light, why should any secret be made ? It is too long now since a fair sifting of the question ; for the Estimates ot 1846 were passed, more as a matter of foim than otherwise, the Governor observing at the time that it was unnecessary to make much alteiation in them on account of the speedy advent of represtntative institutions, which would necessitate their being reconsidered and passed again. Let us proceed to enquire what reductions can be made,— to ask what offices the colony is able to do without. Inconvenience to the public service goes for nothing ; it must be borne a« the l°sser evil ; anything is preferable to the continuance of a scale of expenditure by which a yearly increase is added to our accumulation of debt. I would enquirei in the first place, whether vre are justified in incurring the enormous expense of the po lice force. I will not at present go into the question of its efficiency, of which, indeed, there are not many who hold a high opinion, but content myself by asking, how we are to pay for it ? It is not as if it were actually necessary to us ; for the old constabulary force was able to suffice when the colony was supposed to be in a much more disturbed state than at present, and might again. To all arguments of insufficiency there Jis but one answer,— one, indeed, which it is not possible to get over — that we cannot afford a better. Let us turn to another department. Of what real use is the C.vil Secretary's Office ? Why should not those duties be undertaken by tha Colonial Secretary with his full salary restored to him. All the difficulties that might be raided against resolving the two offires into odg are of a factitious nature merely, to be easily surmoun'pd by Government if it had the will. Weight of business is no excuse ; give the Coloniul Secretary as many clerks as would be equal to it, but let us have only one head, only one eitablishmen'. It may be very convenient to have two; but, unluckily, we cannot afford it. The separation of the duties of the Registrar of Deeds from those of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, about a year a?o, was notoriously a job. Both were efficiently performed by one man before, and for a trifling increase of salary, they might be so again. Moreover the duty of registering deeds should be performed by a person who is at least a lawyer, letting alone all other considerations of greater efficiency. How can we be satisfied with a registrar who has been obliged to ask the meaning of the words " hereditament ' and " messuage," op who has supposed " seisin" to have something to do with a seizure. This reduction Ido not counsel upon the plea of economy alon^, but that the business of the office might be more efficiently conducted. Why need we be obliged to pay the salary of a Lieutenant-Governor, with his private secretary, assistant private secretary, and messenger. Can you even inform me, Sir, by whom the two latter offices arc filled ?* It is a show appointment merely, held by a gentleman universally respected, but of no manner oi use to the colony. During the occasional absences of the Governor-in-chief from the province, let the Colonial Secretary carry ou the business again, as heretofore. We cannot afford many almost necessary re* quircments much less superfluities.

Why should not (he Audit office be placed aghin upon its old footing?) The supervision of ituied to be conducted by a board, for nothing, the salaries of the c'erks being the so'e expense. It it be answered that the accounts are more complicated than they were I ask how did they become so ? And if they be so, it is merely a little more trouble to the laid board, which in these hard timei they must be content to take. The immediate necessity for a Commissioner of Crown Lands, lam unable to perceive. That office is at present little more than a sinecure, in colonial phrase — a berth. Jt ii to be obserred that such an office has been al* ready objected to as superfluous in Council, where it was proposed to compress the duties of it within those o r the Surveyor-General ; a suggestion which the^Gcve*nor m:t by stating the dutiei would be onerou? , for that he had entered into an agreement with the natives for the purchase of the VVaikato, &c. It is turprising that not one member should have thought of putting the very significant question— whether that bargain had been definitely concluded. It would be time enough to appoiut the Commissioner when we shaft hays secured the land. Moreover, the colony does not want such a Commissioner. If the Crown require him, his salary, like that of the other high officers should be paid from home. Why should we not return at once to the system of unpaid Magistrates ? I fur one believe that the duties of the bench would be quite as well performed by Justices of the Peace as by resident Magistrates— but even were it otherwise, it it a choice of evils that \a piesented to us, of which we much choose the least.— We have not the money to pay wilh, aud must ther •• fore be content with the services of those who will afford them gratuitously. A paid Magistrate is required in Auckland, another at Taranaki, and a third at the Bay of Islands, but there, the list should end : even tlie necessity of the last seems doubtful, for the reason that if they can do with their present magistrate at Kororareka they certainly wou'd do much better without him. The number of \llegal decisions which have been giren up there is something astounding. Above all, an improved system of carrying on the public works is of imperative necessity. The waste o£ money, through sheer want of system and careless management ii shameful. Ido not accuse the officers of that department, for they are not suffered to introduce any system of their own : the real fault is in that continual and neediest interference with their dutiei, which leaves them never knowing which way to turn. This is the manner. Sir, in which we should go to work if we be rea'ly in earnest in the intention of cur* tailing our expenses. It ii the greater, not the If sser charges ttut we must begin by cutting away I it is establishments that must be reduced, not the salaries of unfortunate clerks to whom little better than a bars existence is even now conc^d d. So far from diminishing I would be disposed to raise them, and that too ovx the »cry ground of economy. The cheapest sjstem in reality, is to employ as few hands as possible— to pay them well, and to work them hard. The more a man has to do, the bet'er he does it, and he wiil notgrum* ble, if he be only liberally rewarded. It hat been long ago said, that if you keep one servant you will be wellserved ; if you keep two you will be ill served, but that if you keep three, you may serve yourael'. To travel a step higher than clerkship, I would esk if the reduction of the Colonial Secretary's salary be not a paltry piece of rconoray. Can £400 a year be deemed fit remuneration for a mnn capable of undertakiug so arduous an office. When we read of HU Evcellency's iuboun and difficulties in the despa'chei we cannot help recollecting that they must be silently shared by his Colonial Secretary. If the holder of that appointment be fit for the pbee, he is ai leasS worthy of his hire : if he be not, the Government is to bUme f-,r suffering him to jetain it. Ido not offer these suggestions wi f h any expectation of s (> eing them acted upon, but rather with a view of letting it be seen in England what might be done. I believe that the Governmei.t will object to any sweeping reduction, because expenditure and customs' duties acting and reacting upon eaih o her, reduction in the one would he followed by corresponding fall in the other, a sign of the times which it might be disagree* ble bringing to light. Indeed, I think it very possible that by artificial stimulus, the customs' duties might be kept up to fever heat for some while yet ; that the credit of the country might be bolstered up for even another twelve months, but only that we should suffer still more severely in the end. It ii better for the colony that it should know the worst at once. My own belief is that a period of depression must be braved, before a return to real prosperity ; that a " ripening frost" is needed to put the country on a really sound footing once again, and that the sooner it comes, the less severely will it be felt. I clearly see that a crisis is inevitable, ■ooner or later, and am anxious that it should occur duriug the present Governor's term of administration, on account of his acknowledged talent for nnj.Kce, and probability that he would succeed in extricating the colony from its difficulties at a smaller sacrifice thaa his inexperienced tuccesior. I am, Sir, k\, Cipher] *[It will be seen that '» Cipher's" letter was designed for publication before the discustion on the Estimates commenced ; but we could not spare room for it in our last. The above point amongst others was explained on Thursday by the. Governor, who informed the Council that the Private Secretary and Assistant borne on the Estimates, belong to his own (the Gover* nor-in-Chief's) department, not to that of the Lieut.* Governor. We may add, however, that as, to] his Excellency's statement, the work in hit office has been q eatly increased by the forwarding to it of document* from New Munster, a fair portion of the expense should be defrayed by the Southern Province. — Ed.]