Land Fund.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 156, 29 May 1886, Page 3

Land Fund.

The expenditure for tho ourrent year is estimated at '£168,753. The revenue for the year from land sales is estimated at £148.800,

Fall in Customs Duties. The Customs Revenue showed a deficit on the Estimates, aa I have aaid, of £15,175, The Estimate last year was a low one, amounting to £19,000 only in excess of the actual receipts of the previous year. Hon. gentlemen will recolleot that Parliament authorised last session considerable increase in the duties chargeable on wines and spirits. Notwithstanding these increased dutieß the whole Customs revenue only exceeded the revenue of the previous year by £3,723. Judging from the past month's returns and from the coritinued operation of the j chief causes that ; tend to reduce the Cus- j toras receipts, I don't feel myself justified in estimating so large a Customs revenue as that of last year by about £5,000. If. I there have been no exceptional causes to keep down the Customs revenue it should by natural increases during the last few years , yield considerably more than £1,590,000 per annum, whereas I am unable to estimate it at more than £1,410,000 for the current year, The prevailing depression and lessened scale of expenditurejbayeundoubtedly something to do with .^he^reduction, but there are other potent causes at work in the lees use of alcoholic drink* and the fall in the value* of the gogds on, which ad valorem duties are levie^ Tp§re are a large number of pereons in the Bbloriy who aim at the total abolition of the use of wines and spirits. When asked what wouljp be^the effect on the revenue, they answer the Treasurer will easily find a substitute, as 'people who save the enormous' cost of the drinking bill are well able to make up the loss. It is mani festly unfair, -when the Treasurer seeks to perform this duty, to accuse him of increasing the taxation, when in fact he is seeking only to maintain the revenue. There is a certain expenditure that grows every year with the additional wants of the community. The cost of education is a notable example of growing expenditure. The revenue should equally grow, and if it does not do so to a fair extent it is actually falling when the increased number of the taxpayers is taken into account. Although the duty waa con- ! cilerably increased last year on spirits there was a falling off in the revenue on the item of £17,000. A somewhat similar remark may be applied to the ad valorem duties. It is true the actual receipts from these duties were £15,000 more than the previous year, because the value of imports subject to these duties was larger, but as goods continue to fall in value the duty on each article becomes reduced, besides the reduction of its cost exclusive of duty. I will give you one example : I find that if the imports during the year 1885 subject to .an ad valorem, duty of 15 per cent had been estimated at values ruling in ISBO, the total value would have been £320,000 more than that of 1885, and tho duty at 15 per cent, would have been £48,000 more, so that the importers and consumers in regard to the particular goods in question saved between them, in consequence of the fall of value, £320,000 in cash and £48,000 in duties. But this is only the saving on the imports liable to 15 per cent, duties. The saving on the whole imports of 1885, comparing them with the values ruling in 1880, amounted to no less than £1,050,000. Think of this vast °urn paved, and then say if a little extra duty on 1885 values would have been burdensome to either vendors or consumers of the imports. The reception, however, last year of the proposals to increase the Customs duties was not of a nature to induce the Government to again submib similar proposals to the 1 same House, and with great regret they felt themselves debarred from doing so. I cannot say that additional taxation is necessary this year, for it ia not. On the contrary, I can do with less, and I propose to take off l-16th of a penny of the property tax, making it 13Kithß this year instead of 7-Sths. This is equal to a reduction of £24,000, or over 7 per cent, of the estimated yield of the tax. [ should have liked to take off more, and I am convinced that in every way the colony would benefit if the House v\ ere to sanction the reduction of the property tax to 5 Bths, and substitute moderate increases of duty on articles (other than sugar and tea, and such like necessaries of life) that can well bear the taxation. BurJening property now, when produce is co low, is a mistake, as witDeaa the opinion of the financial authorities who control the financial policy of Great Britain and France. I may add that the refusal of .the House to grant the exemptions upon machinery and agricultural implements strengthens the arguments in favour of reducing the property tax, at least for the present. Estimated Revenue fob 1886 87. — The estimated revenue of the year, with the reduction of the property tax which I have described, is as follows :—: —

Expenditure and Revenue. The estimated expenditure is £4.070,208, and the estimated revenue £4,074,920. To the latter has to be added the surplus of €370,859 at the cbmmencement of the year. Together they amount to £4,112,779, and leave a surplus of £42,571, which will be reducible by any Supplementary Estimate that may be appropriated.

Loans and Public Works Hon. members will be anxious to learn what are the proposals concerning the expenditure of borrowed money and the prosecution of public works. It is natural in connection with these subjects that I should congratulate the committee on there being every reason to expect that the great work of the construction of the East and West Coast and Nelson Railways, now known as the New Zealand Midland Railway, will b? carried on by a powerful company. Had it been requisite to inolude the Midland Railway in the works for which provision had to be made, there would, it is idle deny, have been considerable difficulty in to allocating a reasonable division of expenditure, and so we have reason to-be gratified at the removal of an element ot a disturbing character. But the pleasure this may cause is trifling compared^ with' the rejoicing we should feel in knowing a work is provided for calculated to benefit the colony in many ways to a vast extent. *To me personally, I may be allowed to say, there is particular satisfaction in the reflection that at last m> conception of a thorough trunk system of railway for both islands seems fairly in the .way of completion." It, has been a matter of anxiousi consideration with the Government whether they should bringdown proposals for works extending over a period

of from five to ten years, and provide a loan to be borrowed; from time to' time as was required to complete these works, or should be content with making proposals to extend over a shorter period. They have decided on the latter course for more than one reason. First, I may say that it is not inconsistent with the great object of rapidly pushing forward the works' which demand the moßt consideration. Again, it will keep the control of expenditure more within the grasp of Parliament, an object of which they readily admit the value, so long as due faith is kept in the matter of using the loans for the purposes for which they are borrowc d Lastly, they have reason to think that the detraction to which New Zealand has been subjected is such that its resources are not sufficiently appreciated in London, and that the market there will be more satisfied with authority being taken for a email loan. In my , opinion no person who intelligently considers the question can doubt that New Zealand ought to command the very highest price procurable for colonial fecurities. The colony owes no regard to sentimental objection on the part of persona whose views are based on insufficient information, but it must be remembered that pleading the maruet means obtaining a higher price for our loan 3, and this gives to its opinions great authority.

New Loan. I have to announce that the Government will ask for a loan of a million and a half, to be devoted exclusively to railway purposes. They propose that the North Island Trunk Railway loan shall be made inalienable from the object for which itwae intended. When it ia negotiated there will be restore 1 ! to the public works fund the amounts proviously spent on that line from the loans. There will then remain a balance in that fund supplemented by the repayment I have just referred to. Taking from the 21st March last it will leave over £800,000 to be voted as the Houae pleases on other purposes than railways, such as buildings, purchase of native lands, roads, and other works on goldfields, etc. We look to if yielding at least two years' provision ; also, that the railway loan will do the same ; indeed, some of the items of that loan will not be expended in two years. Railway construction will thus be vigorously carried 3ut by the Government, whilst it will also be proceeding on the part of the Midland Railway Company.

Railway Construction.— The Trunk Line to be Finished in Four Years. Before giving the Committee a list of the objects of the proposed new loan, I will venture some remarks on the subject of railways. Though the Government are anxious, ac they have been from the first moment they came into office, to see the North Island Trunk line completed as rapidly as possible, they find that this, with any reasonable regard to economical construction, cannot be obtained sooner than in four years. They will spare no exertion to get the railway finished during the year 1890, and they think an event so momentous in the history of the colony as the completion of the line between Wellington and Auckland should, as I have already mentioned, be celebrated by an international and intercolonial exhibition. As regards other railways they propose to proceed with moderate speed with the extension of the lines north of Auckland, They propose also to push on the lines to connect Auckland with Rotorua, Te Aroha with the Thames, Mauriceville with Woodville, and Woodville with Palmerst^n. They propose to leave to the syndicate that have the Tauranga -Rotorua line in hand a longer period for carrying out their plans. The Buccess of the Midland Company will render more easy the scheme of those who have charge of the Tauranga line. Government regret that they are not able now to propose a line to connect New Plymouth with the Trunk Railway. They recognise that this line will have to be considered at an early date. To turn to the Middle Island : Besides the construction of the Midland line by a company, the Government propose that provision shall be made for connecting Blenheim with Tophouse and Westport with Inangahua. As to these two works, it is not proposed to commence them for at least a year ; until, in fact, the Midland Railway is well started. Seeing with what an extensive system they will connect, there can be no doubt of their proving payable. The Marlborough-Top-house line will open to Wellington the road to the West Coast in a few hours. The railway between Greymouth and Hokitika will be proceeded with vigorously. That also must prove a paying line. The Otago Central will be continued rapidly, and pushed on with energy. The railway from Blenheim to Awatere will be completed, Separate comment need not be^made on any other of the smaller lines, except it may be said it is estimated they will all prove both useful and remunerative. I must noc omit to men tion that provision is included for muchneeded expenditure on open railways, and that out of it the railway workshops in different parts of the colony will be supplied with appliances and machinery which will enable them to keep the open lines well provided.

The Expenditure oi tbe New Loan. I will now read to the Committee a list of the railways to which it is proposed to devote tha million and a-half loan : —Extension north of Auck'and, £70,000; for doubling railway line out of Auckland southwards, £33,000 ; Thames-Te Aroha, £80,000 ; Aucklaod-Rotorua, £120,000; Napier - Palmorston, £100,000 ; Mauriceville - Woodville, £125,000 ; BlenheimAwatere, £50 000 ; Hokitika - Greymouth, £100,000 ; Livingstone branch, £15,000 ; Catlins R'wer, £50,000 ; Seaward Bush extension, £20,000; Edendale to Fortrose, £40,000 ; Mossburn £5,000 ; Riversdale Switzers, £40,000; Otago Central, £200 000 ; Mount Somers - Alford Forest, £14,000; Blenheim - Top House, £100,000 ; Westport Inangahaua, £75,000 ; open lines, £200,000 ; raising loans and contingencies, £63,000 : total, £1,500,000.

Settlement and Industries! In conclusion the Treasurer said : •• We here are in the habit of thinking that we are concerned in the controversy that ragea in the older countries as to the merits of small and large holdings, but it should be remembered that our small farms are what would be regarded as large ones in Europe. Twenty acres near an important town, and 100 to 500 acres further away are possessions that may place their owner in comfortable circumstances w ith d ue industry and diligence. The depression has done good by putting a stop to the disposition to monopolise great estates. It is frequently asked, How can it be expected that small properties with little capital devoted to them can pay better than large ones with capital 1 It is more or less understood, though few have the courage to declare it. I, at least, may do co, for none can accuse me o£a wish to see the houra.of labour extended, for the payment of labour reduced. • -I, hold, and always have held, that high wages are an in,, dication of prosperity. The labouring classes are, in my opinion*, the means by which wealth is distributed through' the country, to fructify in numberless directions. But whilst no pressure Bhould be put- on men to work more than the recognised eight hours daily, it is well understood > that the , man who ie working on his own land and establishing the foundation of a happy home, and future

competence feels a delight in every hour < the labour whioh he and his family gfa towards' increasing the value oE his possei aions. ■■ Therein* he has advantage over thos who depend only on hired labour. Thi is the Becret of the success of old cole nists, and we should aim at placing i like means of working on his account a the disposal of every man who wishes i* Leßt it may be supposed that what I hay. said about the present depression meam that I think its principal cause—the reducec value of wool — is likely to continue, I musi say that such is far from my opinion. II eems to me a sharp rally of prices mu3i inevitably occur. I am one of those who believe that all commodities have fallen in nominal value because of the depreciation of gold, but the fall in wool has been disproportionately great. We know that in New Zealand, with its f ertile land, cheap carriage to a n?arket, and with little risk from floods or drought, wool does not now yield a fair return for the capital employed in its production. Much more must this be the case where natural facilitiesare lessened, and on account of crowded population, more valuable millions of acres are passing out of use in Australia. It appears to me that the need of wool is so confirmed, and so readily open to extension, that nothing but temporary causes can keep it below the price at which it will well pay the producer. The Government wish to make the New Zealand farming fame spread far and wide for opportunities which are offered, to any person who desires it, to live upon his own land. Of course, I conclude in this term the tenure of perpetual lease as well as that of freehold. Settlers on the land, however, should understand that their success largely depends on the prosperity of other classes. The artisans of the towns, miners for gold, coal, and other minerals, and persons who utilise the timber of the forests and the fish of the coasts .are the best allies of those who gather from the soil its wealth. No one who studies the peculiar features of New Zealand— its natural resources and its great coastal extent can fail to see thatitofferstheutmost encouragement to what constituted a country's happiness — a self-reliant community firmly welded togetherbyalarge variety of common interests. Compared with the period of disasters through which almost every country has had to fight its way in its early robust youth, the disorders of this colony are of an infantile description, which cause no anxiety. The growth of these colonies has been so marvellously rapid that the mind is unable to retain the memory of tho halting periods in the past. In all humbleness of spirit, I dare to predict that many generations will pass away before the colonies beneath the Southern Cross reach the culmiuating greatness of their destiny.

Actual Estimated Estimated Ex'pnd 1886-87. 1885-86. 1 885-86. Customs .. ..£1,410,000 1,430,000 1,414,825 Stamps, including Poat and Telegraph, cash .. 617,500 611,900 60,000 Property Tax .. 312.000 327,000 326,276 Beer Duty .. 55,000 55,000 55,165 Railways.. .. 1,150,000 1,050,000 1,044,305 Registration and other Foes .. 36,000 34,000 35 600 Marine . . 13,000 14.000 ]2*113 Miscellaneous .. 41,000 ' 32,000 60*819 Total . . . . £3,637,500 3,553,900 3,565,112 Depasturing Licenses, Rents, etc. .. .. 186,320 195,000 181.831 Debentures* for increases of Sink- , ing Fund .. 251,100 258,000 252,200 Total revenue £4,074,920 4,006,900 3,999,146