FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 79, 16 August 1873, Page 3

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The Treasurer said he had pleasure in being able to communicate to Parliament information, which would prove that New Zealand had never been in a more prosperous condition than at present. The financial operations of 1871-2 proved to be within £8,300 of what was estimated. The new system in connection with the Treasury and Audit was working well. The Controller and the Auditor-General were Commissioners of Audit, and there was a pre-audit to all expenditure. The present total indebtedness of the colony for colonial loans was £6,881,261. The indebtedness of the provinces for provincial loans was £3,448,475. The colony was contingently liable for the latter, and it was no doubt open to those who desired to exaggerate the colonial indebtedness to treat the contingent liability as one required to be met out of colonial revenue. From the colonial liability of £6,881,201, had to be deducted £415,352 for sinking fund accrued, leaving a nett liability of £6,465,908. During the past year, £45,000 of Treasury bills on account of the deficit from 1869-70 had been paid off. This was the second instalment and it was proposed to pay off another £45,000 during the current year. He proposed also to pay off £20,000 of Treasury bills issued on account of confiscated lands; there would then remain a balance of £500,000 of Treasury bills outstanding; these could be paid off during a short term of years and it was proposed to renew them instead of making them part of the permanent debt of the colony. Several thousand pounds per year of interest might be saved by this course. One matter of great importance was the bold attempt which had been made to reduce the rate of interest; all the colonies had gone in the same direction. New Zealand had issued certain amounts of 4 per cent, debentures ; the price was fixed at £9O 10s ; of the parcel of £250,000 offered in New Zealand, nearly the whole had been taken up by the Trust Fund Commissioners, in Australia. The operations compared favorably with what had been done by other colonies and especially by Queensland ; that colony issued 4 per cent, debentures at 86 and the result was a splendid one as compared with previous borrowings at higher rates of interest. The confiscated land had yielded well during the year and had enabled a considerable amount advanced with respect to them to be paid off. The receipts for the year 1872-3, exclusive of the £4500 which had not been brought to account showed a total of £1,119,402, being an excess of £43,402 over that estimated, of £111,987 over the receipts during the year 1871-2. The Customs revenue showed an increase of £32,144 over the estimate, and of £76,960 over the actual receipts of the previous year. After meeting all the liabilities of the year, there was a balance of £3835 left, with which to commence the current year 1873-4. The Government determined to recommend to Parliament to allow the Provincial Governments to borrow money for public works in a manner similar to that in which t he Metropolitan Board of Works in England were permitted to borrow. And that it should be provided that neither the colony nor the province concerned should be liable beyond the specific security given. The works for which it was proposed that provinces should be allowed were roads, bridges, harbor works, reclamations, buildings for education, and in some cases for charitable purposes, goldfields works, and light branch railways, and tramways. That those local works were much wanted was in no degree questioned it only was said that the provinces could better appreciate what was needed and should be allowed to borrow for them. The specific securities to be allowed for the works mentioned should be in the shape of tolls, and wit h the approval of the inhabitants of any district interested, that special rates should be levied; neither the ordinary revenues of the province concerned, nor those of the colony, were to be liable for any of these specially authorized loans. The progress of public works in the colony up to the present time had fully answered the expectations held out when the policy was originally announced. Money was being borrowed at a less rate than was anticipated in 1870. Before the end of the current financial year one hundred and twentyfive miles of railway would be opened, in addition to the thirty-one miles opened in Canterbury, and exclusive of the Port Chalmers line. The Government had come to the conclusion that they would not construct any other railways than those already authorized, except coal lines, without securitv in land to the nominal yplue of twice the estimated cost. As in the North Island, land security could not be provided in the same manner, and as it was desirable that that Island should not be shut out from the benefit of railway construction, it would be proposed that two thirds of all the lands purchased from Maoris should be set apart as railway reserves. The immense demand there was for local works, and of the large sales of land that were taking place, was the reason why the Government had come down with their present proposal. The Government would indicate the additional railways for which they meant “to ask authority, but with one exception it was not intended to hurry on those lines. The Government propose to take authority to fill up the three gaps in the trunk lines between Canterbury and the Bluff, and to ask for authority to spend a further sum of £lOO,OOO on the line between New Plymouth and Wanganui; the

expenditure being carried on slowly so that the works might progress concurrently with settlement. The House would be asked to sanction a continuation of the line from Mercer to the front i r south. At present the survey for this line had not been extended further than Ngaruawahia, but this railway, it was considered desirable for public reasons to hurry on, especially as it would enable to be massed on ths frontier a number of men whose presence would afford the best possible guarantee against wanton outraga, such as that which had lately occurred. The Committee would remember in the original scheme it was intended to construct railways by cash payments, partly by way of guarantee, and partly by means of payment in land ; but at the will of the House the whole weight had now fallen upon cash payments, and the original provisions by way of loan would not be sufficient for present purposes. It was, however, considered that sufficient provision would be made for some time to come if authority was now given to borrow £1,500,000 for railway purposes and half a million for the purchase of native lands in the North Island. A separate Loan Bill would be proposed, authorizing the borrowing of £300,000 to cover the cost of interest on works during construction, including the restoration of the Public Works Loan. Of the amount taken from that loan for this purpose, there would also be included £240,000 for the purpose of subsidies to Road Boards, including the restoration to the Public Works Loan of the £120,000 taken from that loan for subsidies. Further, there would be in this loan bill included £115,000 for public buildings, £35,000 for lighthouses, and £50,000 for telegraph extension. Respecting coal railways, the Government fully recognized that those lines did not come under the category of either “ main ” or “ branch,” but that their construction ought to be looked upon by the Assembly as colonial works. A further sum would be asked for the Mount Rochfort line and harbor works, and an addtional sum would be required to complete the harbor works connected with the Brunner and Greymouth railways. Any lands taken for railway reserves were to be subject to the ordinary land laws of the province in which they were situated, except, that with the consent of the Superintendent, they might be liberally employed for the purposes of settlcmeift. The Government would be willing even that land should be given under a homestead law, to people who would actually occupy it, and they proposed to introduce a measure by which immigrants who paid their own passages to the colony would receive free grants of land subject to occupation conditions. The Government fully recognized how desirable it was that, as the demand for labor in connection with public works decreased, and as laboring men of the colony saved up money, they should be induced to become settlers upon land. Coming to the finances of the current year, the estimated* expenditure for the year 1873-4 amounted to £1,131,688, it included payment of £78,000 out of the consolidated revenue towards the interest and sinking fund of Immigration and Public Works Loan, or £56,000 more than was paid from that loan for like purpose last year. It included also capitation allowance to provinces on the same basis as last year, and taking the RegistrarGeneral’s Estimate of population, that total capitation payments to provinces including special allowances as last year, would amount to £217,964 5s or an increase of more than £9OOO as compared with the payments for 1872-3. The expenditure as stated includes also £45,000 for the last install ment of Treasury bills, representing the deficit of 1869-70 which were to be taken up during the year. He was glad to say that there were no deficiency bills now outstanding to be taken up. During the past year not only had £45,000 of Treasury bills been taken up, but £lOO,OOO of deficiency bills had been paid off. It was proposed that during the current year £50,000 should be again divided amongst road boards. It was intended to propose to alter the tariff, not because additional revenue was desired, but because measurement duties were very unfair in their operation. Those duties were introduced here, as well as in Tasmania, by Governor Gore Browne, and the only other colony in which they existed, so far as the Government were aware, was St. Helena, whence Governor Browne came to this part of the globe. It was desirable to substitute ad valorem duties, not only because they were less objectionable, but because something like uniformity was necessary to the use of the powers for inter-colonial reciprocity which had now been conceded, and because those duties would enable a thoroughly liberal system of ‘drawbacks to be established. The total estimated Customs revenue, 1873-4, under the new duties, would amount to £900,000, being only £48,000, over the receipts of 1872-3, and if the system of duties had not been altered, the same amount would have been estimated as natural increase during the current year. The total of the estimated revenue for 1873-4 was £1,180,500 to which must be added the estimated surplus of £52,000, with which the year was commenced. In conclusion, he might say that this was the fifth occasion on which he had made the annual Financial Statement. On previous occasions he had urged the colonists to the work of civilization, and had sought to stimulate them with a sense of the resources of the country. It was now his duty to urge caution. The settlers were showing their faith in the colony by industrial enterprises of all descriptions. They were determined to develops the coal, the iron, the flax, tlfte timber, the mineral oil, and other resources of the colony. They were ready to advance their money for banking, and insurance, for steamships, and other enterprises, and they hal with great courage and determination broken down the shipping monopoly which had so long overshadowed the colony. The leading features of the Budget were then, that the colony should confine its attention to the great-arterial means of communication, leaving to Provincial Governments the control of necessary local works. Precautions were proposed to keep the colonial credit intact, and the reservation of lands for the settlement of the people had been suggested. A more convenient but certainly not a more oppressive tariff was proposed to be substituted fbr that which had been long in existence. The great aim of the colonists, as well as of the Government, should be to make New

Zealand the home of a large contented and prosperous population. It was with that aim that these proposals had been made in the hopes they would receive from the Assembly and from the colony earnest yet kindly consideration. The delivery of the statement occupied over two hours and three quarters.