MINISTERIAL STATEMENT.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5183, 27 August 1885, Page 3

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT.

[The following is the conclusion of the »boT«:—] The largest portion of the expenditure during the year for buildings has been for school purposes, £69,069; lunatic •iiylntns, £24,992; and post and telegraph offices, £8955. Of the works proposed for the current year, the largest item is for school buildings.—At the end of March last it was considered advisable to place the chief ports of the colony in a sate of defence as far as means admitted, and in about thrro months the whole of the guns available in the colony were mounted, and the necessary magazines, stores, barracks, and enclosing parapets •re sow in » fair state of completion. The total cost of the wrks at Auckland, when completed, will be about £13.200; at Wellington, £15,500; at Lyttelton, £5200; at Port Chalmers, £9600. It was considered advisable, for the better protection of the harbors, and to prevent . their bombardment at long range, to provide 23 guns of the largest type, as well at 20 machine guns, Whitebead torpedoes, and other necessary accessories for coast defences. These will be supplied shortly at a cost of £166,000. It is proposed to mount the heavy guns at the several ports, and also to provide for the. defence of the Bluff. The construction of the works vHl^be extended over a period of three years. It is also proposed to establish a complete system of defence for all the ports. The cost of these, including all necessary firiDg and observing stations, &c, will be about £35.000, and will include all the most modern improvements. The total cost of the scheme of defence will-not exceed ■ £300,000, which is considerably less than has been paid for the fortification of any of the principal Australian ports.—The receipts in connec tioo with the Public Works Fund amounted altogether to £2,327,075, and as against this the expenditure was £1,336,777, leaving a balance of £990,298 on the 31st March, 1885. Of that famous three million loan, together with its little sister, the £250,000. colonial inscribed loan, all had passed away on the 31st March last, excepting about a quarter of a million, and about a like amount in the hands of officers; In these figures the million loan BUtbbrised for the North Island Trunk 'Railway has not been included, that loan not having been raised, funds for the works so far undertak en having been temporarily provided by advances from loans authorised for other purposes. To the credit balance at the commencement of the present financial year, and the amounts already stated, there must be added £1,500,000 for the loan floated id May, making altogether £2,645.298. There must be deducted from this sum £600^000 required to pay off deficiency bills and repay temporary advances. There will thus remain a little over two millions available for expends tare on the Ist April last, subject, however, to a quarter of a million in the hands of officers to be accounted for and the cost of negotiating the million loan in January, and the million and-a half in May last.—When war seemed imminent it was deemed expedient to contract expenditure, and it had not since been considered desirable to extend it. Even taking the defence expenditure into account, I estimate that the amount com* ing for payment to 31st March next may be kept within £1,250,000. We shall have available about half a-million for next year on the 31st March. We think it desirable that provision should be made for another million, which might *be negotiated at any time, after March, when the opportunity seems best. I hope it will take us into 1887. For the year now current the amounts which we propose to ask the House to authorise are as follows: For immigration, £30,373; departmental pspi-nditure, £28,931; railway works, £1,347,400; this will give £849,875 for new undertakings ; for roads of all classes, with liabilities of £380,453, £586,704 (this includes roads north of Auckland, with liabilities of £66,301, amount asked for, £69,229; also for grants in aid under the Boads and Bridges Construction Act, and subsidies to local bodies, £268,329; and roads on goldfields, with liabilities of £33,122 ; for waterworks on gold fields, £30,200 ; for public buildings, £156.518 (this includes] school buildings £68,230); for lighthouses and harbor works (including defences), £266,010; fortelegrapbextension,£2s,9oo; for purchaseof native lands, with estimated liabilities of £173;260, we ask for a vote of £70,000, that beiDg sufficient to meet the practicable payments which will become due during the currentfyear; for charges and expenses of raising' loans, we ask for £60,C00. Tie total amount proposed to be voted is thus £2;602;036, which includes liabilities amounting to £1,202,970. Deducting from these liabilities the sum of £103,200 prospective liabilities on native land purchases, the amount available for new undertakings would thus be £1,502,266, but it is only contemplated I to spend this year about £1,250,000, which is very slightly in excess of liabilities already existing. In concluding the Statement, Mr Richardson reminded members of the inadequacy of the proportion for railways as compared; with that for roads and bridge*. If the borrowing powers were to be restrained within prudent limits, some change would require to be made in the way that sums are voted out of loan for the latter class of works. If the Roadi and Bridges Construction Act re* mained rjir*pealed, he hesitated to estimate w|mt the yearly vote from loan would grow to. The matter required grave consideration, but without risking the dangers of a too hasty alteration of the system, Government would strive to bring about a change in the mode of charging inch votes to loan.