LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9064, 13 April 1908, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A belated Parliamentary Paper gives a statement of the receipts and expenditure of the New Zealand International Exhibition from May 27th, 1905, to October 31st, 1907. The receipts totalled £218,505 2s 4d,. and the expenditure £239,970 7s 5Jd, leaving a debit balance of £21,645 5s 1 id. The largest item on. the receipt side is "to Government I advances, £87.617 75," but against this appears "by refunds to Government, £27,117 75." Space fees brought in £24,686,. admissions £44,322, season tickets-£8,433, selling rights commissions £7,107, sideshow royalties £s'i&s'4, concert hall revenue £5,166, art gallery £1,246;. Besses o' th' Barn Band £3,419'.. The largest item on the expenditure side was £67,822 for the main building. The statuary cost £3; 77/6, tha working expenses of the concert hall were £2,859, and those of the art gallery £4,044. Other' itama of expenditure were: —Besjes o' th' Barn Band £2„525, wages of gatekeepers and attendants £3,376, salaries and office expenses- £.7,,G12.. The realisation of properties at the close of I the Exhibition brought £16,469, in .addition to expenses recovered £436. !The expenses of realisation were £3,392, and refunds absorbed £1.95.

According to an official return just issued, the total sttm spent on charitable aid in New Zealand by the several Charitable Aid Boards during tho years 1891-1&0G (inclusive) was £1.385,797. The greatest amount disbursed dluring any one year \va3 in 1896, when the expenditure reached £106,530, Six figures were never reached again until 190(5, when the amount spent was £103,272. Throughout the lit'teen years indicated in the return there has been a good deal of fluctuation in the yearly expenditure, but on the whole there has been a fairly : steady advance. In 1904 the amount was £89,231; next year there was an increase of over £4,000, and in 1906 a sudden jump of £9934 is recorded. The lowest expenditure upon charitable aid during the period recorded was in 1892, when the sum disbursed was just under £71,000.

It is anticipated that fully sixty new members will be enrolled at the annual meeting: of the Masterton A. and P. Association to be held in July.