GOLDFIELDS, ROADS, &c.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2011, 15 June 1875, Page 4

GOLDFIELDS, ROADS, &c.

(To the Editor of the Evening Stab.) Sib,~l quite agree with your morning contemporary expressed in its leader of Saturday that revenue raised direct from the gbldfields should "be expended upon v it, but am really at. a loss to understand how it can bo asserted in the face of well-established facts that, so far asthe Hauraki Goldfields are concerned, this is not the case. I have before me a statement giving the receipts and. expenditure under this head since the opening of the Thames Goldfield in 1867 ; this is certified by the Provincial Accountant, and showi receipts from that period up to April 3Q, 1875, to have been £168,084, while the expenditure during the same time was £196,732, or £28,618 in excess of receipts. Eefemng to the Financial Statement of the Provincial Treasurer ■ for the half-year ending December 81st, 1875, we find the estimated revenue from the goldfields set down as £6000, and this, unless the yield of gold increases, may be taken as approximating closely to the truth. Of course, nothing of any consequence will accrue during that "period under the head. of ordinary .Provincial revenue, the bulk having been received in the current half-year. The Advertiser says, " T^ c do not and cannot get what we have: a; right to expect —the < expenditure of the whole of the goldfields I revenue upon thegoldfield." Areferehce io the above figures shows this assertion to be a mistake which the most ordinary attention would have prevented. It' further appears that for the coming halfyear, although any large expenditure cannot ;be undertaken,:the rule hitherto observed of expending goldfield revenue upon the field has been followed, and if the. items in the : estimated expenditure are-totted up it will be seen that the gross expenditureupon the goldfield exceeds £8,000,- thus 'absorbing the £6,000 estimated revenue, and anything to' which ,we may be entitled ; from capitation money ox advances ex- \ pected during,the same period. It is, humiliating to confess ourselves in such an impecunious position, but there is no help ,for it; the interest on m»ney borrowed by the General Government to carry out the Immigration and Public Works Act is absorbing all the revenue; and unless some means are taken in the next session of the Assembly to alter tho incidence of taxation, and the Customs is released of the undue burdens inflicted upon it; bur roads and tracks wili become in a ruinous condition. We have no scourco of revenue over which we can lay claim; but the Customs we contribute largely to and receive little or nothing in retarn. The land fund is but a small contribution, and our share for a long

time''will be nil; the total amount now ' available by the province being little more than sufficient to carry out the machinery of the Waste Lands Department. There can be no doubt that in the matter of the WaiotahT Boad a great breach of faith has been committed.; We/have a piece of good road without a beginning or end. The Borough Council is largely to blame for this, as there was ■ a distinct understanding that when the money was granted to form 'it that the part • within the boundaries of the: Borough should

be made; in fact v?L.en the grant of £2250 'Vas made to the Borough by the Government, there was a distinct assurance tffat ■ this should be done. ;The Advertiser geems to have been indulging in a sort of Kip Van Wintle dose "when it imagines the Government knew nothing of this matter. The Superintendent and his * Executive are fully Jinformed in every particular. When the former was down here a deputation waited upon him, with a memorial signed by most of tho inhabitants in the Waiotahi District, stating the nature of the grievance. During the ; sitting .of the Council the matter was again urged upon their notice—the result being that a sum of £200 was promised • to keep the roads and worts up the creek in repair until the next session. It is most probable th.at no further aid will be given to the borough unless under the distinct conditions that the road within its boundaiies is completed. - : Waiotahi.