FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 193, 5 August 1874, Page 2

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

(Condenser! from the Napi r Telegraph). The Hon. Mr. Vogel said that the Statement would not only be shorter than usual, but it would be unprecedented, on account of the prosperity which it evidenced. Last year it. was anticipated that the actual results of 1872-3 would leave a surplus of £3,800, with which to begin the year, but it proved that there was a difference of £6OOO as compared with what was anticipated, As to loans, it would be remembered that during the last session, an announcement was made that 5 per cent, debentures to the amount, of half-a-million had. been sold at £2 10s premium. In January last the Loan agents invited tenders for one million pounds, at 41 per cent. He had been favorable to the change to 4 per cent., but he approved of the action of the agents since they had inserted a condition that the debentures might be retired at any time after 5 years. The halfwillion borrowed at. 4J- per cent, interest realised £9B. Making allowance for redeeming the discount, this was tantamount to borrowing at the rate of £4 12s 6d per cent. It was originally calculated that money for the Immigration and Public Works Policy would have to be borrowed at 5f per cent. It was gratifying, therefore, to know that , tlie average rate of interest on the loans for those purposes yet negotiated, including allowance for recovering discount, amounted only to £4 14s ild per cent. The aggregate amount of the public debt, after deducting sinking fund accrued, was £12,500,000, and the annual charge was £777.000, of which £554,000 had to be paid by the colony, and £223,000 by the provinces. During the year 1869-70, the receipts, exclusive of gold revenue, were £209,000; 1870-1, £208,000; 1871-2, £336,000; 1872-3, £889,642; 1873-4, £1,038,000. The Post Office Savings Bank account showed an increase of deposi Is of £137,000, the total deposits in those banks being now' £682,000. The revenue of the past year exceeded that of 1872-3 by £300,0(X), and it exceeded the estimated amount by £239,000. This result was very large when the proportion it bore to the whole amount of the revenue was considered. He could not state accurately the increase that had resulted from the substitution of ad valorem for measurement duties, as there bad not yet been sufficient time to classify the returns; but there could be no doubt that the new duties produced more largely than the measurement duties. He was glad of this, both on account, of the result, andon account of the testimony it bore to the honor and truthfulness of the commercial classes of the country. He emphatically expressed the opinion that taxation had not pressed harshly on the hulk of the people, and that under the new system the duties had been more evenly distributed over articles of luxury than was the case formerly. After deducting expenditure and liabilities, as well as allowing £20,000 for liabilities yet to come in, and paying off £45,000 of Treasury bills, there was a balance at the end of 1873-4 available for the service of the current year aihounting -to £207,000. The Government were prepared to allow a limited amount, of assistance to the provinces, but such assistance to be rendered through the Colonial Government, or to be charged either against the amount for the settlement of immigrants, or upon the Consolidated fund, but with power to the Government to issue Treasury Bills, if found necessary to meet it. As to the assistance to be given to separate provinces, Mr. Vogel said: “ First, in regard to Auckland, the Government during the recess undertook to ask Parliament to allow the province to raise £59,000 to be advanced from time to time, extending over a period of about, three years, for works upon the Thames goldfields. The Government besides had agreed, subject to the approval of Parliament, to advance to Auckland, on the security of one-half of its land revenue, to be impounded for the purpose, £40,000, in sums of £6OOO every three months. The Goverhmeut propose, to ask Parliament to carry out these arrangements. We do not propose to ask for Auckland any further loan beyond the power to devote some part of the immigration funds to objects directly promolive of the settlement of immigrants. Taranaki, with its splendid lauds, offers a field for the location of immigrants second to none in the colony, and we shall ask for power to advance money to aid so essential a work. Similarly we propose to devote some funds to Westland and Nelson.

In regard to Wellington, we agreed to submit, for the approval of the Assembly a proposition to allow Wellington to obtain an advance of £66,000 on 80,000 acres of land to be opened to the free selection of small settlers, We shall ask that this plan be carried out. I may also mention incidentally that we propose to ask authority to construct proper Government buildings in Wellington. Nelson’s case is the most difficult to deal with. That province has long lagged behind in the race that other provinces have run. We propose to lend to it, on specific security, £50,000 for works which the public Works Department approve. From Otago also the cry for borrowed money has come. In respect to Otago, and in respect to Canterbury and Ha wke’s Bay, I have only to say we propose to continue their trunk railways, and to aid them in locating the immigrants they so wonderfully absorb. We propose to appropriate an additional £60,000 for roads in the North Island, and to continue the same plan as formerly, by allocating to the Middle Island provinces a like amount out of the sums that, would thus be familiarly explained by the slaughter of the bird which lays the golden eggs. As a mere matter of policy, it is wise, in the midst of the immense increase of the Colonial revenue, to specially remember some of the provinces which contribute to it, and which are at present at a great disadvantage as compared with other provinces. It is not wise to let parts of the colony languish under a sense of wrong—to allow them to feel they are still becalmed, whilst the favoring breeze removes from their sight the vessels originally becalmed with them. The condition of the three provinces of Auckland, Westland, and Nelson, as compared with the other provinces, is lamentable, and requires, from the surplus of the Consolidated revenue, the attention of the Legislature. Auckland’s case is far the worst. It will take that province some years to work itself round, and to enjoy the future which I firmly believe is still before it. Westland has proved, a mine of wealth to the colony.

It is folly to desert it. These considerations impel us to recommend that out of the years’s surplus a special allowance, in addition to that already provided by the scale of capitation allowances, be made to Auckland, Westland, and Nelson at. the rale of £25,<M)9 to the first, £IO,IXIO to the second, and £5,000 to the third.

He proposed this year to take over and to charge upon the consolidated revenue all the cost of interest, inclusive of interest upon the works in course of construction for which other provision had been made. He proposed also to bear on the consolidated revenue half of the defenco expenditure, and half of the amount to be paid as subsidies to Road Boards. Further, he proposed to pay off an additional £lOO,OOO of Treasury bills.

Taking into consideration the number of officers of the Civil Service who were inclined to leave the service on account of opportunities to benefit themselves, and the hardships to which they were subjected through the increased cost of living, the Government had decided to recommend. as a matter of expediency, no less than of justice, that a special allowance should this year be made of 10 per cent, to all officers whose salaries did not exceed £l5O a yea r; of 71 per cent, to all officers w'hose salaries exceeded £l5O, but did not exceed £300: aud of 5 per cent, to all those officers whose salaries exceeded £3OO, but did not exceed £5<K). To do this would absorb £IS,(XX) of the surplus. The total revenue for the year (1874-5), estimated with moderat ion, wa s £ 1,496,000; adding to this the surplus with wliieh the year was commenced, there would be a total of £1,704,000; and deducting the total expenditure, there would be a surplus of £66,000. In conclusion, Mr. Vogel urged that while the country w'as confidently pursuing its policy of progress they should wisely husband its strength, and not have larger recourse to borrowing than was absolutely necessary for carrying out. the policy which the House and the people had adopted.