THE BALANCE SHEETS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 293, 25 August 1888, Page 2

THE BALANCE SHEETS OF NEW ZEALAND.

A very important and valuable papei J has been presented to Parliament. It is entitled '• The Balance-sheets of the Colony from 1832 to 1888/' and is compiled by the Controller arid AuditorGeneral, Mr J. E. ,Fitßgerald. Its object is stated fts being " id tell in a brief, intelligible form, the financial history of New Zealand from its first settlement," and this is dorie, says the Napier Herald's Wellington correspondent, with remarkable clearness,considering the necessarily complicated nature of the subject. The following are among the most interesting facts brought out : — The expenditure of the New South Wales Government in New Zealand (which then was a dependency of the Australian Colony) was £188- in 1832, increasing to £974 next year, but receding to £538> in £1834, In 1840, when New Zealand became a separate colony, the Government expenditure was £21,740, which doubled next year, but had fallen to £38,841 by 1845. Then came constitutional government, and in 1853 the expenditure leapt up to £103,085. In 1862 it had reached a million, in 1866 two millions, and after the public works policy had been adopted the expenditure (including public works) rose in 1874 to £5,875,000, but then fell until in 1880 and 1882 it was below five millions, rising again to £5,808,000 in 1886. This year it has gone down half a million, being £5,343,000. Another interesting comparison is that of the expenditure and taxation per head of the population, during successive quinquennial periods. The rate of taxation was highest in the period 1856-66, when it was £4 Cs 9d per head ; in the following quinquennium it fell to its lowest point (in 30 years), viz., £3 Is 8d ; in the next it jumped up again to £4 ss, and has ever since been steadily falling, being £4 3s 6d for 1880-84, and £4 2s 7d for the last three years. The payment of interest and sinking fund on debts has, however, steadily risen from 3s 8d per head in 1855-59 and £1 13s 2d in 1870-74 to £2 15s 6d at the present day. The cost of the Legislature on the other hand decreased from 2s 8d in 1855-59 to Is 3d in 1865-69, and then rose gradually to Is 9d in 1880-84, at which point it still remains. The expense of the Civil Service has steadily risen from 3s lOd per head of the population in 1860-64 to 18s 8d at the present day. The total expenditure of the Government rose by leaps and bounds from £6 8s 3d per head in 1855-59 to £13 5s 6d in 1875-79, then decreased to £9 3s Sd in the last Atkinson period 1880-84, but increased again in thp Stout- Vogel perio-l 1885-87 to £9 10s 3d per head of the population. The Auckland Finflnci.il Reform Association has compiled from the balancesheets of the Auditor-General the following figures, showing the amounts paid for expenses by the colony for raisinglotms from 18G4-6 5 to 1837-88 :—

Tear. 1864-65 1870-71 1871-72 1872-73 1873-74 1874 75 1875-76 1876 77 1877-78 1878^79 1879-80 1880-81 1881-82 1882-83 1883-84 1884-85 1885-86 1886-87 1887-88 £ s. d. 203,578 19 8 8,061 11 2 62.571 9 4 33,883 19 5 27,229 15 2 279,088 16 0 138,245 15 9 9,956 12 7 2,404 18 4 46,334 1 1 3,816 1 5 193,356 36 5 13,576 3 11 516 5 10 33,464 7 6 19,255 4 4 155,571 16 9 86,932 3 8 86,168 16 0 T'lpaidforraiaingloans £1,404,103 14 4