The Southland Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1642, 1 October 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1872.

THE financial statement of the new Colonial Treasurer, Mr Gillies, cannot be characterised as a very satisfactory document, so far as we are able to judge from the telegraphic summary which has been officially furnished to the press, and which appears in our columns to-day. The complete statement itself, when it arrives in course of post, will doubtless afford material for further comment, and, it may be anticipated, will yield results of a more definite kind. It may be useful, in the meantime, to sum manse the summary itself, and to place the information which it affords before our readers ma j shape as intelligible, and yet condensed as may be. The first broad fact to be 1 gathered from it is that the public debt ot the colony has now nearly reached the round amount often millions (£9,409,05 d, I is what Mr Gillies makes it out to be, exactly), and that the annual charge which the debt entails ia £616,000. This is precisely what Mr Yogel told us a few weeks ago, and what Mr Gillies now repeats and as the amount of the debentures already issued, and the annual charge for interest and inking fund, are not matters about which there can be any doubt, and which the simplest inspection of the public accounts ought to show at a glance, we may assume that tbe figures as given in the telegraphic summary are pra cl,C: »''j correct. An annual charge of £610,000 for interest and sinking fund on loans already raised, is accordingly the first important fact at which we arrive on a perusal of Mr Gillies's statement. The next thing we find our new Treasurer saving is, that this very considerable charge must be provided for out ot the general and provincial revenue. This is a very sound principle no doubt, and it is a very proper thing to say that the annual charge for interest and sinking fund must be provided out of the current revenue. Having said so, we are entitled to assume that Mr Gillies intends to try to do it, i i,l • J„>„ ni' Ilia c*-Vfao ncstiact but the remainder oi tn q - . „„ i. uu . uu.' •.» one that might have been anticipated. Mr Yogel explained, in his statement, tbat there was something like £10,000 of surplus to begin the current year with ; Mr Gillies, on the contrary, declares that there is about £30,000 of a deficit. We need not at present go into the minutiae of his explanations as to how this discrepancy arises, but content ourselves with remarking that the fact that the new Treasurer's statement does not exhibit a much more serious variation from that of his predecessor, shows most conclusively that he has simply taken up the calculations prepared for Mr Yogel by the permanent officers of the Treasury department, and that whatever ability Mr Gilltes may ultimately develope in dealing with the department of which he has taken charge, he bas not as yet given any ■ very striking proof of his financial talent. Tbe next thing we come to ia an estimate of the resources actually available tor carrying on the railway works already authorised by the Legislature, the railways, namely, placed ou the first schedule of the Public Works and Immigra tioa Act, of which tbe Winton-Kingston line, we maj remark in passing, is one. These,- it seems, are to cost about two millions, in addition to those already begun. The Minister of Public Works, Mr Donald K-eid, is to tell us what they are to be. Por making them, tbe Treasurer has: some £740,000, already avail- ■ able, partly in cash, and partly in materials. He thinks tbat, taking everything into account, he will have to borrow about one million and a half more before they are finished. . But there is no need, be says, to deal with this at present, there being money enough on hand to finish the contracts already begun, and even to make a start with some new ones, if the Assembly wishes it. Then there is £800,000. available for Immigration, and £230,000 for water for the goldfields ; £220,000 for roads in the North Island, and £130,000 tor buying laud in the North Island. The Koad Boards are not to get any more out of the loans • it appears, indeed, if we are to believe Mr Gillies, that they would rather not have any. As to revenue and expenditure for the current year, it is to be much tbe same as Mr Vogel's was to have been, only more wisely managed, and not stated in the same " misleading" manuer. One thing we notice — that the capitation grant to the Provinces is to be altered in favor of tbe North Island, the Maori population being allowed for at the rate of 10s per head. The next thing is tbat tbe Estimates are to be reduced by £10,000, and if Mr Gillies is allowed to continue in offi.ee till next year, he will reduce them by £25,000. He is to do great things indeed next year, if he is only permitted to have the oppor tunity. He is going to augment the revenue by altering the " incidence" of taxation, so as to pay the interest on the loans out of current receipts. But in the meantime, and for the current year, he prefers to carry out hia predecessor's scheme. Practical men, it must be ad-

mitted, have a difficulty in seeing how the revenue is to be augmented by altering the "incidence" of taxation. _ If the Treasurer had spoken of increasing the amount of taxation, it would have been more intelligible, and that seems to be what he really means, though apparently he does not like to say so. We have HOW noticed every point of importance contained in the summary, and if our readers are not satisfied, and perhaps not very much wiser than before, it is of course to be regretted, but we fear the fault must lie either with themselves or with Mr Gilltes. Some of them may perhaps be inclined to come to the conclusion that although Mr Gillies, as a lawyer, could not be expected to be very clever in manipulating figures, he has nevertheless shown a very fair appreciation of what is good for the North Island. Others, and with them we are not inclined seriously to differ, may think that if the statement shows nothing else very clearly, it affords at least pretty conclusive evidence of one thins— the fact, namely, that Mr STA.TFORD has not been verj fortunate in bis choice of a Treasurer.