APPROPRIATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5734, 15 August 1879, Page 2

APPROPRIATION.

The following is the estimated amount required to be appropriated for the services of the period from Ist July to 30th September, 1879 :

Consolidated Fund.—Appropriations for the year 1878-99 : Public Departments, £199,073 ; law and justice, £144,154 ; postal and telegraphic, £245,189; Customs, £40,906; marine, £48,359; education, £222,270; native, £32,239; militia and volunteers, £30,178 ; constabulary, £144,964; railways, £493,152; public domains and buildings, £32,541 ; Crown lands, survey, and goldfields, £241,338 ; miscellaneous, £137,292 ; provincial liabilities, -£237,257 ; total, £2,249,162; deduct provincial liabilities, £237,257; total, £2,011,905 ; add 35 per cent, of £493,152 for railways, £172,603 ; total, £2,184,508. One-fourth of £2,184,508 to be appropriated for services to 30th September, 1879, £546,127; liabilities outstanding on 30th June, 1879, £200,000 ; provincial liabilities, £5000; total consolidated fund, £751,127.

Public Woiks Fund.—ln continuation of the services authorised by the Immigration and Public Works Appropriation Act, 1,878 : Miscellaneous, £500,000. Services not previously authorised, Contingent defence, £BO,OOO ; native land purchase, £50,000 ; immigration, £50,000 ; liabilities under section 16 of the Immigration and Public Works Appropriation Act, 1878, £50,000 ; Cook Strait cable, £24,000 ; reclamation of railway station at Pipitea, £IOOO ; branch from Greytown to main line, £IOOO ; surveys to open up lands before sale, £IOOO ; Waitahuna road, £6OO. Public Buildings,—Postal and Telegraph Offices, £3500 ; lunatic asylums, £2500 ; local bodies contingencies, £IOO. Total, £500,000. The following is the clause relating to the item of 35 per cent, to be added to the railway vote:—“ In respect of the several services payable out of the Consolidated Fund, so much as may be necessary of the sum granted by the Imprest Supply Act 1879, and by this Act, together with the fees collected by such public officers as are authorised to retain the same in lieu of salary, shall be issued and applied in payment of so much of the salaries and contingent expenses of the public service upon the scale set forth in the Appropriation Act, 1873, as shall come in the course of payment during the three months ending on the thirtieth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine : Provided that in respect of railways open for traffic, the sum appropriated by the said Appropriation Act shall be deemed to be increased by thirty-five per centum, for the purpose of estimating the amount which may be issued and applied for the said service under the authority of this Act.” In respect to the above appropriation, it would appear that the only items of special interest to Wellington readers are the appropriations for the Greytown branch and the railway reclamations at Pipitea. The votes proposed are small preliminary ones only, the authority for the former having been smuggled through the House by the simple addition of the words and branches, about which a question was lately raised in the House by, we believe, the Hon. Mr. Richardson. It is evident that the information conveyed by the Bill is of the very scantiest description, and we confess that, without having heard the Financial Statement, the Bill is in a great measure unintelligible to us.