FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2065, 28 June 1890, Page 2

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

On last Wednesday evening the Financial Statement was read bv Mr Mitchelson, as the Premier was too ill to deliver it. 'I he following is a condensed report of it:— After a few introductory remarks the statement went on to say that a sign of very satisfactory progress was that our Crown lands are being rapidly taken up for settlement in small areas, so that agricultural holdings were increasing at as rapid a rate as during our greatest prosperity. CONSOLIDATED FUND. Expenditure for the year 1889-90, Ordinary Revenue : The estimated expenditure amounted to £4,150,703. The actual expenditure was £4,121,842. Balance of amount authorised, £2,8861. Revenue of the year 1889-90. Ordinary Revenue: Estimated revenue, £4,187,800. The actual amount received was £4,200,247 ; the total revenue therefore exceeded the estimate by £21,447, The customs were less than the estimate by £49,120; stamps exceeded the estimate by £24,755; and the railways by £63,340. The profit of the Trust Office wan £5182. LAND FUND. "^ The estimated expenditure of the land fund was £128,149. The actual expenditure was £121,919. The actual receipts were £87,692, as against £136,100 estimated, the expenditure having been £121,919, and the receipts £87,692, there was a deficiency of £34,227, During the three years the previous Government had been in power, the land fund fell short of meeting expenditure by £147,200. During the 2£ years of Ihe present Ministry it fell short of expenditure by £90,354. SUKPL¥S. The amount available to meet expenditure was £4,237,015, and the total expenditure having been £4,121,841, there was a surplus for the year of £115,174. This surplus of course includes the primage duty amounting to £55,826. The primage duty bad only been in force 22 months, and had reached only £101,958, yet he paid off the whole of the £128,605 deficit. The final result for the" year, after paying what was left of the deficit of £128,605, namely, £78,605, is a balance of £37,569 with which to begin the current year, and the outstanding liabilities atthe end of 1889-90 were less than those of the previous year by £15,186. THE PFBLIC DEBT. The gross estimated public debt Q§l the colony amounted to £38,667,950A and accrued sinking funds to £1,383,432. The net public" debCf * was therefore £37,284,518. Of t\JL sum there remained unexpended tsHt amount of £961,300. During the year debentures of the New Zealand loan of 1856, namely, £50;000 due on Ist October, 1889, were redeemed out

of accrued sinking funds; debentures of the Consolidated Stock Act, 1884, for £134,400, were redeemed out of the sinking fuad of the loan last named, drawn for redemption in 1889, and there were redeemed and in course of redemption out of the proceeds of the new issue of £2,700,000 at 3£ per ceut. inscribed stock debentures of the New Zealand loan of ISB9, £385,000 due the Ist November 18S9, and debentures of the New Zealand loans of 1876 and 1877 for £2,207,300 (known as the 5 per cent, ten forties), called io for redemption on the Ist March last. ~ On the other hand debentures were issued for £275,200 under the Consolidated Stock Act, 1881, equivalent to the estimated amount of increases of the sinking funds for 1888-89, and a further amount of £50,000 for loans to local bodies under the, Government Loans to Local Bodies Act, 1886 Then we issued the £2,700,000 of 31

per cent, iuscribed stock already referred to, created for the purpose of paying off the debentures remaining unconverted of the loan of 1879 and of the 5 per cent, tenforties, and this I have added the estimated further amount of £70,000 3£ per per cent, iuscribed stock required to complete the conversion operation. Although by this operation the public debt has been enlarged, hon. members will of course bear in mind that a considerable Baving in annual charge has been effected by the reduction of the rate of interest in respect of the bonds converted from 5 to 3|d per cents. I have also included £75,000 for the mortgage debt taken 1 over by the Government when the Waimea Wains Railway was purchased, but , which has not hitherto appeared in the annual statement of the public debt. Ihe average price realised proved to be £95 16s Bid, being rather less than 1 per cent over the minimum, a result which will yield a saving of about; £30,000 in the annual oharge tor interest, and is on the whole fairly satisfactory. PUBLIC WORKS FUND. ~** Since the year 1885-86 the Public Works Fund has been divided into three parts. Part 1 : For roads, purchase of Native lands, &c. On the 31st March, 1889, the balance at credit of this account was £303,801 in addition to which there was an asset of £87,974 under the Government Loans to Local

Bodies Act, 1886, and other assets which rose Ihe amount to £401,188. The expenditure during the year amounted to £167,513, the principle items of which were roada £81,031, and public buildings £35,472. The unexpended balance at the close of the year was £233,675; and the liabilities were £114,308. Part 2: The unexpended balance of this account, which is on account of the North Island Main Trunk Railway loan of £1,000,000 was £435,817 on the 3lßt March, 1889. The expenditure in 1889-90 was £48,882, including £24,049 for the purchase of Native lands; leaving a balance of £386,985 at credit of the account on the 31st March last, subject to liabilities amounting to £9,604.

. Part 3•: For construction of railways. We began the year with a credit balance of this account of £618,078, augmented to £621,191 by £3113 recoveries. The year's expenditure was £194,385, and we had in hand at the 31st March last £426.806, with outstanding liabilities amounting to £190,929. Summarising the transactions we began with a balance of £1,458,105, we expended £410,729, including over £28,000 for the purchase of Native

lands, and that we hand a balance in

hand •ri the 31st March last of 1 £1,047,466, against which there were liabilities outstanding amounting to £314,932 made up as follows—Cash in public account, £322,976; on fixed depositia London, £80,000; in debentures of

loan, 1870, £47,600; in Westport

Harbor Debentures, £56,000; m Greymouth Harbor Debentures, £5000; consolidated stock debentures, £15,500; in the hands of Government officers, £54,014 ; in loans to local bodies, £87,974 With regard to Loans to Local Bodies the original intention was that the money sheuld have been borrowed at 4 per cent and lent at 5 per cent, the 1 per cent together with another 1 per cent of the consolidated revenue going to make up a sinking fund to wipe off the debt in 26 years, But the money had been borrowed on short dated debentures at 5 per cent, and no sinking fund was established. When the fitting time came it was proposed to ask Parliament to make provisions for this sinking fund. CONSOLIDATED EEYENTJE.

The estimated revenue was £4,127,417. An increase of £5271 was made in the salaries of the telegraph officials, and they were classified bo that in the course of a few years the increase in salaries would amount to £19,569. The other increases were —Education, £6OOO ; 0 0; working Railways, £18,000; school buildings, £27,400, and a email increase for defence. In the postal department there was a reduction owing to no provisions being made for the San Francisco Mail, and Mr Goschen's scheme for reducing postage to England to could be carried out without detri-

ment to the revenue. The Government proposed to continue the primage duty for another two years for raising funds for school buildings and lunatic asylums instead of pro-

Tiding the money put of loan or charging local bodies with it. It was contemplated to amend the Education Act bo as to give the Minister of Education a voice in saying what

schools should be built, and preference would be given to buildicg in stone or

briek instead of wood, 'ihe property tax; could not be reduced, much less abandoned.. It was estimated to yield £355,000, and it was practically impossible to raise the money in any other equally equitable way. After the action of Parliament in rejecting the Government measure fsr extending the Otago Central railway it was not intended to reintroduce the measure this session. It was impossible to make further reductions in the public expenditure without curtailing public convenience to an extent which would be a hardship. la compliance with ihe recommendation of the Mining Conference the gold duty would be abolished, and another revenue substituted for it. ,In 1887 it was intended that the proceeds from debentures (amounting to £400,000) issued for interest received from investing sinking funds should be applied in | extinguishing the short-dated debentures for £400,000, but this would press too hardly on the revenue, and it was not done. The estimated revenue for the current year was £4,159,050, of which Jb1,480,0Q0 was expected from customs, £612,000 from stamps, £1,480,000 from railways, and £96,600 from lands, etc. 'J he other items were not specified. The estimated expenditure was £4,127,417, and the estimated receipts being £4159,050, plus the surplus of £36,509 from last year, or a total of £4,194,559, would leave next year a surplus of £68,092 (?), subject to a reduction of £20,000, or £48,000 in all. This was not too large a margin. CBOWff lxnbs.

Owing to the fact that the perpetual I Jeasing system was bepoming more and more popular, the land fund was uot sufficient to carry on settlement, and £20,000 in aid of it would be required. Money would be required for roads and bridges to open up the .new districts, and the Government proposed to raise it as follows:—A block of land, for instance, say, of 10,000 acres is to be opened for settlement. The rjads would be laid out and the sections surveyed ; the cost of forming and metalling the main road (ibrough the block would be estimated,

and added to the cost of clearing and forming the district roads. 'I he total amount thus ascertained, he would suppose, was £SOOO. A rate, under the Rating Act, would then be struck over the block to cover that amount, less the present value of the thirds, aa though it were a district raising a loan under the Government Loans to Local Bodies Act, and the county council in which the land was situated would be asked to superintend the execution of works under regulations to be approved by the House. In bush districts all road-making, excepting the first clearing of the main roads, should be offered to the settlers in the first instance, so as to give employment to them tor the first year or two. If this system were ! carried out it would give great satisfaction and confidence to settlers by insuring the making of necessary roads as they are required, the money being at call and depending upon no contingency, and enabling a small settler to earn a fair amount of cash at a time when he most needed help. Hon. members will perhaps say that this is only another form of borrowing, and that is true; but it is a form for a purpose already approved by Parliament, and within the limit now fixed, the only difference being that the money will be provided at a more ouitable time, and consequently will be more useful to settlers. It would s be impossible after the year to continue the arrangement, which is to find money out of loan in aid of settlement. As a matter of fact during the last five years no less than £262,600 had been found for this purpose, and the loan balance which was available would be completely exhausted by the end of this year. " The | Government had under consideration the question of any possible amendment of the land laws with a view of still further increasing their efficiency in promoting bona fide settlement. They think an amendment desirable, increasing the power of Land Boards and of the Minister to prevent dummyism, also in bush districts, and where drainage was needed, it would be of material assistance to settlers of «aaall means if the rent for the first to y«ars could be postponed, and distributed over the rest of the term, both in the case of perpetual leaseholders and deferred payment selectors. A Bill to give effect to these proposals will be introduced shortly. PURCHASE OF NATIVE LAND.

Authority had been granted by Parliament to temporarily apply a portion of the loan tor the North Island Main Trunk Railway to the purchase of Native land within the prescribed railway area, and about 759,431 acres of land had already been acquired, and much larger areas were now under negotiation. The Government proposed to ask for £125,000 more this year for the purpose from the same source, and, as hon. members know, it is proposed by the Bale of the land so purchased to recoup the loan the amouat lent, and a separate account is kept of all sales made within the prescribed area. But there is a large quantity of Native land outside the railway area, which in the public interest ought to be acquired by the Crown and settled. Hitherto funds have been provided for this purpose by ordinary loan. He would ask the House to create such a fund by setting apart a block of, say, 250,000 acres in the North Island, and by paying in future into a separate account a certain per centage of the proceeds of all such lands sold for cash or deferred payment, and also of the rent of such lands let on perpetual lease. This land has in part beea handed over to the Crown Lands Department, and the ha.la,nr>.«

of it has only lately been acquired In the meantime, pending the disposal of the land set apart, it will be necessary for three or four years certainly to have cash available at the rate of about £30,000 a year for buying Native land. The Government will ask Parliament to authorise the Treasurer to advance it from the fund authorised to be raised under authority given by the Govornment Loans to Local Bodies

Act, the limit set by that Act being sufficient to cover all eur requirements. Some hon. members will no doubt think it would be better to ask for separate authority to raise this money, but the Government will not ask for more borrowing power than they already possess, whjch they do not think it would be wise er prudent to extend. There is no doubt the Committee is aware power is given to the Government under the Loans to Local Bodies Act to raise money either in London or the colonies. Up to the preset time no debentures under this Act have been issued to tha public, it having been found more convenient to invest our funds in such debentures as Ihave been issued, and although they bear nominally 5 per cent, interest, the money does not really cost us more than slightly over 4 par cent. We should also have had some difficulty in finding a better investment for our funds. Should, however, the proposal I now submit be acceptable to Parlia-

ment, an 4 as ou,r Bublic Works Fund becomes exhausted, it may be advisable to make an issue to the public, and we think this be done with prudence and. a.qcoess jn, the colony. I thinl; that we shall find no difficulty in disposing locally of such an amount as may be required from time to time at 4 per cent, at par. If Parliament will, as we propose, allow an issue not subject to the property tax, and if we can issue at that price, it will really b,e. as profitable tion for the colony as an ordinary shorb dated loan raised in Loudon.

THE STATE OF THE COLONY. The speaker then went on to talk of exodus, and said, " Taking the last three quinquennial periods from 1875 to 1889, in one year only (1888) did our loss by emigration from New Zealand exceed our gain by immigration, and if we take the quinquennial period in which that loss occurs, that is the period from 1885 to 1889, our net loss by emigration amounts to 2416, this number, curiously enough, being composed of women and children, but children mostly, in the proportion of 18 to 1, while in " bone and Binew " or adult males, as the terms are used in these returns, there was a net gain to us of 432. I have said "curiously enough," but the anomaly is easily seen to be only apparent if a married couple and five children leave and another couple without children come we say our loss of population has been in children only," The surprise was that we had not lost more people owing to reduction of expenditure on \ Public Work, and the fact that we did spoke volumes for the attractiyenesa of the colony. In 1876 the estimated number of adult males was 115,883, and the number of agricultural holdings was 17,150 for that number. The number of holdings increased in February, 1890, to 38,178, and the estimated number of male adults then amounted to 164,392, so that the proportion of agricultural holdings to every 100 male adults had increased from 14.88 in 1876 to 23.23 in 1890. In other words, out of every 100 men in 1876, when the colony was most prosperous, there were only. 14.68 men cultivating land, whereas in 1890 there were 23.14 so employed. The value of exported agricultural produce increased from L 589.022 in 1887 to L 1,424,297 in 1889. In 1885 the value of exported manufactured goods was including flax, L 120.539, in 1889 L 569.560, or an increase 4£ times. Our total exports had increased from

L 5,475,844 to L 9,042,008 in 1889 or L 55 lis 6d per mail head ef adult population. The number of people owning 20,000 sheep had increased from 139 to 152 ; owning 10,000 sheep from 201 to 239 ; while persons holding under 10,000 increased from 6517 to 10,146. The frozen meat trade increased from L 19,339 in 1882 to L 783.374 in 1889. On the 31st December last there was in all the savings bank in the colony L 2,858,644 at the credit of 110,480 persons, as against L 2,691,692 at the credit of 103,036 on the 31st December, 1888, being an increase of L 166.952 in

amount, and of 7434 in the number of depositors. Of the total amount deposited L 2,181,451 was in the Post Office Savings Bank, and £667,173 in banks established under the Act of 1858, Since 1886, when the total amount was £2,133,780, the deposits hare increased thus: L 273.995 in 1887, L 283.917 in 1888, and L 166,952, as already stated in 1889. In the total number of depositors the increase from 91,296 in 1886 has been as follows :—6200 in 1887, 5550 in 1888, and 7434 in 1889. The treasurer went on at great length to show that the depression in trade arose from two causes, the contraction in public expenditure, and the fact that too many were engaged in business in towns in proportion to population. This led to two men competing for one man's work, to bad debts and losses. The remedy was to settle the people on the land. On this subject Parliament could assist

small farmers, but he did not think many small farmers could be obtained, and it was worth while to try whether special settlement could be promoted. Albo in districts where no Crown lands existed blocks of land could be brought for such industries as fruit and spade industry. The provisions of the Land Act of 1885 ought to be extended for village settlements. An effort would be made to give youths a taste for country life by making elementary agriculture a part of the teaching given in the schools.

EETBEKCHMENT. The Treasurer then reviewed the past two years, and insisted that the Government had retrenched to the amount of L 291.000. The expenditure in 1886-7 was L 4,280,444, and that for 1889-90 L 4,243,761, making a difference of L 36,683, which was apparently the saving effected. But there was increased interest of L 254.727, and the estimates of 1886 87 were insufficient to the extent of L 405,219. If the change had not been made the deficit this year would have heen L60G.946, instead o having a surplus of L 115.114. Th additional taxation put on by the present Government was estimated at L 336,000, butit yielded only L 315.000. The result of the past two years he felt would be found satisfactory to the country. PEOTECTION. As to the result of, tla© Customs duties in 188,6, five woollen mills consumed 1,869,9991 b of wool, in 1889 seven mills consumed 3,556,0041 b of wool.

LAND, During th,e two years 1,150,000 | acres had. been, disposed of, and there was, another 1,000,000 in the market. Ihe problem of the future was not how to keep their own settlers, but how to get others to come. Stagnation in trade arose from want; of settlement. Sober finan.ee, extended settlement a,3ad. increased industries, these, with never failing confidence in our future, will carry us prosperously on and leave this land a noble inheri- | tance for our children.