The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1582, 24 May 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1872.

In the speech of His Honor the Superintendent at the opening of the Council, there was one announcement of a satisfactory kind, which we noticed at the time. The revenue for the past year was stated at £286,000, while the expenditure had been only £245,000. An easy calculation shows that if these figures are correct, there must have been a surplus of £41,000. On this point we expressed some doubt at the time, as telegraphic reports of figures are not always so trustworthy as might be desired. But an examination of the Provincial Balance-sheet, which has since come to hand, sets the matter at rest. The figures appear even to have been understated, though no doubt there was some very satisfactory reason for this, apart from the retiring modesty which is always so conspicuous in the public utterances of the Superintendent and the Provincial Treasurer. Taking the figures as they stand in the balance sheet, however, the actual excess of receipts over expenditure appears to have been exactly £52,920 8s 9d in the year ending 31st March, 1872. Here then is a handsome surplus, about which there can be no mistake, and the questions at once occur, where is it, and what is to be done with it ? The answer is to be found in another entry in the same account. The financial year began with a balance against the Province of £97,578 18s 9d, and closes with a balance against the Province of £44,658 10s, the difference being the exact amount of our surplus, £52,920 8s 9d. We can see | now what has become of it, and we have also a key to the fact that the expenditure on roads and bridges fell short of the amount voted. The " balance against the Province " practically represents an overdrawn account in the Bank of New Zealand. On the 31st of March the amount of the overdraft was £40,497 9s. The additional £4000 was the difference between outstanding unpaid accounts and money in London at credit of the Province. Provincial overdrafts, since the General Government announced that they disclaimed all responsibility for such advances, have not been very favorably regarded by the banks, and we are not surprised to find that the Bank of New Zealand have insisted on the very large reduction which the above figures show to have been effected on the Otago account. It is probable that a further repayment will be required during the current year, and that the amount available for public works will be still further curtailed. The Superintendent's speech, as reported, stated the actual cash expenditure on roads and bridges at

I £82,000, surely a small proportion of a revenue amounting to £289,000. But on examining the printed statement laid before the Council, we find the amount, inclusive of grants to Road Boards, to be only £64,687, less than one-fourth of the whole. This includes all the payments set down to Koad Boards, Roads, Works and Buildings, Bridges, Jetties and Harbors, and Railways. For these purposes the Council last year votod £93,967, in round numbers, £94,000, of which only about two-thirds has actually been expended. It may further interest our readers to know that the public debt of the Province amounts in round numbers to one million and a quarter sterling. Of this amount about one million has been converted into G-eneral Government securities, and the interest on this sum, amounting to about £60,000, is paid by the General Government and charged against the allowance made to the Province out of the consolidated revenue of the Colony. The balance, about a quarter of a million, together with charges on the bank account, costs the Provincial authorities the sum of £32,000, or about double the rate paid, by the Colony. Surely these figures speak for themselves. Without going into details, which might only bewilder the general reader, two things are clear. Of £289,000 received by the Provincial Treasury last year, only £64,000 could be spared for roads, bridges, buildings, jetties, harbors, and railways. And, the debt for which the Province is still directly responsible, costs for interest and commission, double the rate which the General Government have to pay for their accommodation. No amount of mystification in the Treasurer's statement can get over these facts, which can be ascertained by any one who will be at the trouble to examine the accounts as laid before the Council, and published in the Gazette. Yet from the style of the Superintendent's address, and the expenditure proposed for the current year, any one might suppose that the finances of the Province were in a flourishing condition, and that the economy and efficiency of the Provincial administration were all that could be desired. When will the public learn the truth about our provincial institutions ? In times gone by, when a Bcanty population repaired once a year to the sea-port to hear news from the outer world, and when Auckland was practically more distant from Dunedin than London is now,"they may have done the State some service. But they have had their day. Year by year their real power has passed away, though the semblance remains. The Council has become a debating club, supported by the public funds, and the Executive a paid committee exercising delegated powers. The Treasurer is compelled to confess that his estimates of revenue depend on what the General Government may choose to give him ; and the consciousness that their decisions will be revised by a higher power gives an air of unreality to the debates of the Council on questions of national importance. No one is surprised to find ths Council dealing with the public lands as if the supply were inexhaustible, or. passing votes, in ten or twenty thousand acres at a time, for public works on the proposition of a single member, without a scrap of information as to the utility, cost, or practicability of such undertakings. No one will be surprised to find the Council listening to the Treasurer's estimates of next year's revenue as if there was not a doubt about their being realised in hard cash ; or passing votes far in excess of what even the Treasurer dares to hope he will have to spend, and so leaving the Executive for the rest of the year in the enjoyment of almost despotic power over what funds may actually prove available. The sooner this farce is played out the better. One wonders that it has been permitted to continue so long. Matters cannot really be so very bad, one is tempted to think, or some change would have been made by this time. But there are two reasons for this phenomenon. One is, that the thing is actually in existence, and will require a positive and strenuous effort on the part of the community to stamp it out. And the other is, that a large number of our professional politicians, from whom public opinion in New Zealand has too long been accustomed to take the cue, are directly interested in the continuance of the system. An ordinary mortal can hardly be expected to quarrel with his bread and butter for the sake of humanity at large ; and so long as we continue to consult our provincial politicians on the subject, so long will we be assured that the continuance of the provincial system is indispensable to the well-being of the State. _____ _____ _