THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1872.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 82, 13 January 1872, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1872.

Have any or our readers seen the A priation Act. !s7l ? If they have not. we shall endeavour to tell them what it is like. It contains sixty-five pages oflieial quarto, closely printed, and appropriates, including the amount authorised by the Imprest Supply Act. I<S7l, as far as we can figure out the totals, the sum of _£ 1,Di0,(528 IDs nd. being' consMcrablv it; excess of the estimated income ol the colony tor 1871-/2. Tims, wo grow in extravagance, as we grow in years. TV e are a great country : ami all the world .shall know it. for of a truth, all the worhl is likely to hear of us sooner than many persons think. And the report, if we do not err egregiousA, will not be flattering to

our “ national” vanity. For vrc have “ national aspirations,” and are by consequence, “ a great nation.” Six months of the financial year have already expired, and we may he cpiite certain that a full moiety of the sum appropriated has been spent. Ho one ever heard of any Government hesitating about expenditure. . It is their nature to disburse. An economical Government would be ridiculed off the face of the earth : and our go-ahead Government have determined not to he subjects of ridicule. Happen what may, they arc bent on forging ahead.

A peep into the schedules of the Appropriation Act is by no means a sight worth paying for by one of the nonofficial caste. It is suggestive of reckless extravagance. It suggests living beyond one’s means, and disregarding consequences. .V private individual, progressing at such a pace on the road to ruin, would soon land in the debtor’s prison or Court of Ikmkruptey ; hut here wo have no such hope of relief. Our extravagance is “national” extravagance ; our defalcations would he national” also; and the settlement would l)e “national” i:i its character as well. AVeusethe word “national” as most consistent with our “ noble

aspirations” and “progressive policy.” Hut in such a ease, there will be no whitewashing. There will he no Insolvency Judge to appeal to :—no composition with our creditors possible, except on the tooting oi payment in full: Those vrho hold that the Colony must, repudiate its engagements cannot have given much attention to the question. Repudiation is not at all possible for Hew Zealand. Wc owe the mother country, privately and publicly, something like twenty millions sterling, and the mother country will take care that one of her owii dependencies shall not imitate the keen A ankee practice in the matter of Pennsylvania bonds. The Imperial Government would be compelled to take steps to enforce payment; and then, the acquired property of colonists would infallibly he laid under contribution.

With respect to the Appropriation Act under review, wc might content ourselves by saying that it is the most extravagant in its character that has ever passed the New Zealand Legislature, and that would be compressing a large sized volunm into a few words : hut there arc points in it still more reprehensible. The second schedule purports to make provision for “the service of the year 1 «S7l-72.” The total is £309,088 ">s Id, including liabilities and engagements, and £21,205 proviuciallv charged. l!ut that amount does not by any means, make provision for the service of the year 1.871-72, The total is over one million one hundred and thirtv-iive thousand pounds; a portion of which no doubt is placed upon loan, but which is nevertheless, part and parcel of the necessary departmental expenditure of the Government. Thus we have an expenditure, for defence purposes, placed on loan, amounting to £i GO,OUO for the year; and we are all aware that this disbursement is one that, with the present poliev of the Government, is unavoidable.

.In like liinimer, we have a sum of £(!.o70 11s appropriated for the year out of a special fund, created by the sale of confiscated lands. Of this total, two items arc worth reforing to, namely, “ Proportion of subsidy for overland mad, Wellington and Taranaki, £1000;” “ ’proport'on of subsidy to steamer*' Goahead,’ £5100.” Why these sums should bo contributed by the Colony, to open up settlement on the West Coast is a problem to us, seeing that the greater portion of the so-called “confiscated land” really belonged to Maoris, according to Messrs M*Lean and Parris, and that large endowments of the residue have, been made for education and promised for harbour construction to the (Superintendent and province of Taiannki. It looks like ’favouritism, considering how affairs are managed in Auckland. Under the head of Immigration and Public Works Loan, we have a total appropriation of £(>1,0(!1) Ms. of which £OOO is for interest and sinking fund on £750,000, the excess being for salaries, and £I,OOO for raising the loan in London. Now, from this it is clear we are carrying on the most costly departments of the Government by means of borrowed money, and that we are paying interest and sinking fund in the same way. We are likewise supporting establishments for the good of broken-down pol'ticiaus, by applying trust funds to supplement revenue, and gradually reducing the public estate, by sale, to pay salaries. "W e ask our readers to consider, as rational men, how long such a state of things can or should continue ? It is in the interest of anyone who wishes well to the country that it should he perpetuated ? We think we may anticipate the reply. Such a state of things should not Go permitted to continue longer than next session, before which it cannot be dealt with. Put meanwhile public opinion should lie expressed so strongly in favour of .economy and change in the administrative system, as to compel our representatives to unite to secure that end.