The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3987, 8 October 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1881.

The last session of Parliament was remarkable from the fact that no attention was paid whatever to the financial position of the colony. It seems to have been taken for granted by the majority of the members of the House that there was no danger which could happen to our colony and our prosperity while Major Atkinson held the position of Colonial Treasurer. There are, it must be borne in mind, very few representatives of the people who know anything about the public accounts. The financial statement is all they care to bear, and they believe what the Colonial Treasurer tells them. No confidence can be more misplaced. In all the annals of English history no blind trust has been more wantonly abused. The finance of the continuous ministry has always been regarded as its strong point. The pride its members have taken in this their citadel of stregth is doubtless worthy of emulation, as no parallel can be found in modern times for its novel character out of Egypt or Turkey. It is questionable whether Khedive or Sultan ever had a Minister who could create a surplus out of a deficit with the same marvellous celerity that Major Atkinson can. No difficulty appals him, no fear of discovery checks his invention, no blush of shame is seen on his countenauce when he is engaged in his feats of fiuancial legerdemain. He told the people who heard him at Fatea last March that the present Government reduced the expenditure from £110,000 per week—the weekly amount the Grey Government had spent —to £60,000 or £70,000. The statement was circulated throughout New Zealand by wire, and Great jßritain and the Australian colonies by special message, as showing what marvellous savings had been affected. It is the first time within our knowledge of any responsible minister of the English Crown having the hardihood to publicly, make such a statement. Let us glance hurridly at the last year's accounts, and.ascertain how far the Patea statement is removed from the truth. The first matter that strikes the attention of the investigator is, that the permanent debt of the colony during the financial ypar 1880 81 was increased to the extent of £1,455,300, Of this amount of increased indebtedness £955,21)0 arose from the conversion of the loan of 1879, aud £500,100 from the sale of Treasury 'Bills. The Treasury Bills were sold in this way: Since the loan for Public

Works and Immigration was raised in 18'/!J, some million and a quarter sterling was taken therefrom to meet the deficiencies in the Consolidated Fund. The Consolidated Fund gave bills to the Public Works Fund, which it was, of course, unable to redeem, and as the money was wanted for works of public utility, the bills were sold. The sale of bills has not been a practice generally followed by reputable Governments. We

bad promised the English bond-holder

that we would not borrow for a certain ' period, and so the Colonial Treasurer | evaded the obligation by drawing bills

with his right hand on his left hand, and selling them for what he could get. lv 1879 Major Atkiuson placed upon the CuuuU 1/ i'ciuO.OOU aiiditloual auuual tax«-

tion, iv the form of custom duties. Ye strange to say, the customs revenue of 1881 was 110 more than that for 1879, before the iucreased tariff was in force. Last year he obtained £45,987 from beer duty, and £219,716 from property tax In hi* financial statement of 1880 he told the House that he intended inaugurating a new system of account keeping, to further aid the revenue, by which system duriog the last financial year only eleven months' expenditure would be included in the charges against the twelve months' revenue. He told the country with sangfroid that this change of account keeping could not happen again. Those considerations have to be borne in mind before considering the outcome of the last year's revenue. Looking away, however, from the financial statement, and taking our figures from the Govern* ment Gazettes, we find there the first item of the year's revenue is a sum of £38,355, a balance brought f( rward from the previous year. This balance was borrowed money. Looking at the difference between the expenditure of the consolidated fond for eleven months against.the twelve months revenue, there is found to be a deficiency of £38,023, which, added to the borrowed balance above mentioned, makes the deficit for the period £76,578. The consolidated fund, it will be remembered, was relieved from charges as well as aided by new taxation. The reliefs, in. round .numbers, may be thus described:—lncome" .T«x on Civil Service, £200,000; 20 per cent, for six months taken from the Land Fund, payable to the Counties, £40,000; unpaid subsidies to local bodies, at the rate of 12s 6d in the £, £195,000; deductions from Education Committees, £30,000. The result is as follows: The Consolidated Fund was aided and retrieved to the extent of three-quarters of a million sterling, and the deficit for the financial period notwithstanding was £76,578. In the Gazette, where the Land Fund is separated from the Consolidated Fund, there is a credit balance of £32,373 shewn, as pointed out by Mr Buckland in, his speech ; but the Treasurer iv his statement informed us that the liabilities of the fund at the end of the year exceeded the balance by £6000. (Mr Buckland should have told the story in full;) Meantime our public debt, was increased nearly a million and a half. The year's expenditure iv round numbers was £5,700,000. The supporters of the Governmeut will doubtless deny the accuracy of our figures ; let them be shown to be untrue. There is, however, this consolation : a financial, unlike a religious impostor, has little chance of carrying the eredencc of bis dupes to an honored grave. He is generally found out, and very soon Major Atkinson will be in the same position., ; : .