FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1511, 27 May 1886, Page 3

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The Colonial Treasurer delivered his ilinancial Statement on Tuesday evening. He said the revenue was £1954, and the expenditure £29,875, less than the Estimates, leaving a surplus of £37,859. There was a saving of £16,446 in the defence, and reductions in other departments brought the savings up to £100,240. PUBLIC DEBT. , On the 31st March the public debt was £34,965,222, less the sinking fund £3,276,873, leaving the net debt of the colony £31,688,349. The effect of loan conversions are :—Firstly, augmentation of debt, £164,381; secondly, the annual reduction of chargep for the first six years £42,229, and afterwards an annual reduction of £46,842 ; thirdly, total reduction of charge, £620,179. We nre rapidly bringing our securities into carrying a lower rate of iuterest. Soon there will be do part of the debit bearing interest at month" t per cent, and the grateful task wil. ! nl on a future Treasurer, I venture to predict, of converting the 4 per cents into 3 or 3£ per cents. IOCAL BODIES. To replace the Roads and Bridges Construction Act they proposed that when the ratepayers in any district approved fit any work money should be provided for the local body on liberal terms. The terms of pnymeut of 3 par cent per annum for 26 years on special rates, the colony to be responsible, and to meet it "by setting aside yearly a sinking fund of 2 per cent to redeem debentures at maturity. The sum Parliament would render available for this should not exceed £200,000 a year, and the loans should be only for country districts, and the storage of water for irrigation and mining should be %mongßt the objects local bodies should carry out. HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID. Tbe feature this least satisfactory was the disposition to levy rates instead of !e»niDg od voluntary donations. To arrest this tendency the Government would propose to increase the subsidy on account of voluntary donations. LOANSTO FAEMEBS. He regretted he could not make any 'proposals on the recommendations of the select committee of last year, tn European countries where Governments did this business there was a sufficient market for securities, but in this eolony there was not. Debentures of this kind would Dot fetch more than £9O per 100, and therefore there would be a loss to the borrower. As regards the State borrowing money and lending it to farmers, be did not consider it advisablsnow. ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE. He estimnted the expenditure for 1886-87 at £4,070,208, an increase of £49,155 in excess of the estimate of vote, and £89,030 in excess of the expenditure of last year. The increase was made up of £20,978, education vote ; £39,368, subsidy to local bodies ; and £67,225 on working railways. The first was owing to tbe increasing population, and the railways owing to the purchase of District Kail ways. The amount to be paid for interest and sinking fund was £1,654,300. Por three years a total sum of £400,024 had been saved by the loan conversions. Its amount was £9239. Summary of services charged on the Consolidated Fund >" 1886-87:—P«rmanent appropriations civil list, £29,750; voted 1885 86 £29,750, expended £28,079; interest and sinking fund, 2886-87, £1,654,500; voted, 188586 £1,667,873, expended £1,689,347; under special nets of the legislature, 188687, £231,054; total, £1,915,304 ; voted £177,484; expended, £146,109; total roted, £1,875,107; expended total, £1,863,535; annual appropriations, 188687, Legislative, £17,390; voted, 85-86, £17,870; expended, £17.551; Colonial Secretary, 86-87, £155,725; toted, 85-86, £521,797; expended, £233,205; clbss 3, Colonial Treasurer, 86-87, £48,054 ; voted, 85-86, •£48,912; expended, £59,736; class 4, Minister of Justice, 86-87, £117,194; Toted, 85-86, £117,763; expended, £113,666; class 5, Postmaster-General and Commissioner of Telegraphs, 86-87, £273,717; voted, 85-86, £280,133; expended, £287,524 ; class 6, Commissioner of Customs, 86-87, £88,997; voted, 85-86, £88,434 ; . expended, £78,908 ; class 7, Commissioner of Stamps, 86-87, £30,506; voted, 85-86; £30,571; expended, £28,212; class 8, Minister of Education, 86-87, £382,914; voted, 85-86, £361,936; expended, £357,896; class 9, Minister of Native Affidrs, 86-87, £20,104; voted, 85-86, £20,222; expended, £22,243; class 10, Minister of Mines, 86-87, £31,713; voted, 85-86, £33,102; expended, £22,730; class 11, Minister of Public Works, 86-87, £799,560; voted, 85-86, £737,854; expended, £726,576 ; class 12, Minister of Defence, 86 87, £19,030 ; total,

£2,154,984; voted, 85-86, £177,552; total, £2,145,946; expended, £161,107; total, £2,108,404; total expenditure on ordinary revenue account, 86-87, £4,070,208; voted, 85-86, £4,021,053; expended, £3,971,939 ; land fund, 86 87, the expenditure for the curreDt year is estimated at £168,752. This includes the usual charges under special Acts, such 88 the thirds of the sales of land on deferred payments, New Plymouth Harbor Board endowment, and other charges ; also the Land and Survey Departments, and rateß on Crown Lands. The revenue for the year from land Bales is estimated at £148,800. The recoveries, which I bave already explained, it is proposed to \" make on account of native rates, etc., will leave the funds about balanced at the end of the year in future. CUSTOMS REVENUE. He referred to the dimunition in the consumption of spirits and other dutiable articles, and said the Customs revenue was decreasing instead of increasing as it ought to be. However; after the recep-| tion of the proposal to increase the Customs last year, the Government with great regret felt themselves debarred from increasing the Customs duties. A reduction in the Property Tax and an increase in the Customs would benefit every class. TAXATION. $0 additional taxation would be WfiOisary, and he would take off one aisjieenth of a penny of the Property Tfti, making it thirteen-sixeenths instead ©f seren eighths as it was last year. ESTIMATED REVENUE. The estimated revenue of the year, wjth the reduction of the Property Tax, is as follows \ —.Revenue fitiaiated, 86 87, Customs, £1,410,000;

estimated, 85-86, £1,430,000; actual, 85 86, £1,414,825 ; Stamps, including post and telegraph cash, estimated, 86-87, £617,500; estimated, 85 86, £611,900; actual, 85-86, £607,000; Property Tax, estimated, 86-87, £312,000; estimated, 85-86, £327,000; actual, 85-86, £326,276 ; Beer duty, estimated, 86-87, £55,000; estimated, 85-86, £55,000; actual 85-86, £55,165; Railways, estimated 86-87, £1,500,000 ; estimated, 85-86, £1,050,000 ; actual, 85-86, £1,044,305 ; registration and other fees, estimated, 86-87, £36,000; estimated, 85-86, £84,000; actual, 85-86, £35,600; nwine, estimated, 86-87, £13,000 ; estimated, 85-86. £14,000; actual, 85-86, £12,113; miscellaneous, estimated, 86-87, £44,000; estimated, 85 86, £32,000; actual, 85-86. £69,819 ; total estimated, 86 - 87, £?,637,500 ; estimated, 85-86, £553,900; actual, 85-86, £3,565,11.2; depasturing licenses, rents, etc., estimated, 86-87-£186,320; estimated, 85 86, £195,000; actual, 85 86, £181,834; debentures for increases of Sinking Fund, estimated, 86-87, £251,100 ; estimated, 85 86, £252,200 ; total revenue, estimated, 80 87, £4,074,920; estimated, 85-86 £4,006,900; actual 85-85, £3,999,046. I It will be observed that the estimates of j accretions of Siuking Fuud is rather less than lust year, instead of, as might be expected, showing a considerable increase. The explanation is that Her Majesty's Lords of the Treasury have agreed to allow the interests ot theßs 86 guaranteed loan to be paid out of the interest derived from the accrued Sinking Fund, which now exceeds tbe amount of the debt. The estimated expenditure is £4,070,208 and the estimated revenue £4,074, 9zo. To the latter has to be added the surplus of £37,859, making the amount £4,112.779 and leaving a surplus of £42,571, which will be reducible by any Supplementary Estimate that may be appropriated, PUBLIC WORKS. He congratulated the Committee on the East and West Const Railway being taken up by a powerful company in England. The Government proposed to ask for a loan ef a million and a-balf, to be devoted exclusively to railway purposes. They propose that the North Island Trunk railway loin shall be made inalienable from, the object for which it was intended, when, and as it is negotiated, there will be restored to the public works fund the amounts previously spent on the line from other loans. There will then remain the balance in that fund supplemented by repayments. The list of railways to which it is proposed to devote the million and a-half loan is as follows: Extension north of Auckland, £70,000; for doubling railway H'>e out of Auckland southwards, £33,000 ; Tharnes-Te Aroha, £BO,OOO ; Auckland- Roforua, £120,000; Napier-Palmerston, £IOO.OOO ; Mauriceville-Woodville, £125,000 ; Blen-heim-Awatere, £53,000; Hokitika-Grey-mouth, £IOO,OOO ; Livingstone branch, £150,000 ; Catlio's River, £50,000 ; Seaward Bush extension, £30,000 ; Edendale towards Fortrose, £40,000; Mossbum, £51,000; Riversdale-Switzers, £41,000; Otago Central, £200,000; Mount SoraersAlford Forest, £14,000 ; Blenhiem-Top-house, £100,000; Westport-Inangahua, £75,000 ; open lines, £200,000; raising loan and contingencies, £63,000; total, £1,500,000. CONCLUSION, The Government wish to make New Zealand famed far and wide for the opportunities it offers to any person who desires to live upon his own land, and of course I include in this term the tenure of perpetual leases as well as that of freeholds. The settlers on the land, however, should understand that their success largely depsnds on the prosperity of other olasses—the artisans in towns, the miners on land containing gold, coal, and other minerals, and persons who utilise the timber of the forest, are the best allies of these who gather from the soil its wealth. No one who studies tbe peculiar features of New Zealand, its aatural resources, its great coastal extent, and its remarkably isolated position can fail to s?e that it offers the utmost encouragement to what constitutes a country's happiness—a self-reliant community, firmly welded together by a large variety of common interests, The excitement of public life is apt to make a politician forget how little there is to separate him from the ways—they are many, the end it is one—that end the welfare of the colony, that oonfides to them the control of its affairs. I venture to say to those who are inclined to think seriously of any difficulties under which New Zealand labors, that one has only to read history to recognise that those difficulties are " trifles, light as air" compared with the periods of disaster through which almost every country has had to fight its way in its early youth. The disorders of the colony are of a description which cause no anxiety. It is the cuitom to credit me with being sanguine. There may be truth in the charge ; a man is ill able to judge of himself, and i do not pretend to the possession of that rare quality—self-knowledge; yet it appears to me that whatever hopefulness of disposition I enjoy arises le s from constitutional causes than from experience of long years of obaarvation. The lesson life has taught me is that there are few difficulties whioh cannot be overcome, and that the darkest moment is nearest to dawn. For 34 years I have closely watched the progress of the Australasian colonies. There have been times when it seemed to me that terrible reverses must infallibly overtake them, and again and again has the weakness of my judgment been rebuked until I have learned to think that the logic of facts is in favor of a recovery rather than of a decline. The growth of these colonies has been so marvel- ; lously rapid that the mind is unable to retain the memory of halting periods. As the past, so the future, and in all humbleness of spirit I dare predict that many generations will I pass away before the colonies beneath the Southern Cioss reach the culminating greatness of their destiny.

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