THE ESTIMATES.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 20, 18 May 1867, Page 3

THE ESTIMATES.

The Provincial Treasurer on Tuesday evening’ made his financial statement, and it contrasts favorably with any which have heretofore been made to the Provincial Council. In many respects it is an improvement on any of its predecessors. The fault we find with it is that there is no means recommended for increasing the revenue, and none for reducing the expenditure. On some salaries there is even an increase recommended, and any retrenchment on such matters appears to have been thought by the Provincial Treasurer and his colleagues out of the question. When Hawke’s Bay formed a portion of the Province of Wellington—when the gold discoveries of Victoria had been the means of doubling the cost of living—when the Government had the proceeds of two loans of £50,000 each at its own disposal—when it had the possession of a public estate twenty times the value of that it possesses now—the cost of the Government of the Province was notonehalf the sum now placed on the Estimates to cover the civil expenditure! Out of an estimated income, from all sources, of £135,823, it is proposed to expend £141,374, or £5600 more than the. revenue will amount to, though this includes a loan on the reclaimed land of £16,500, while the proceeds of the sale of the reclaimed land are put down at £IO,OOO in addition ! We point out the facts, but there is no use in commenting upon them, if the various constituencies of the Province will not keep a sharp look after their representatives and see that they do their duty.

Out of the £141,000 proposed to be appropriated we can scarcely discover an item specially devoted to public works in this extensive district The sum of £15,000 is put down to gi’ants-in-aid, of which we may have a portion if we are so minded, but not a penny is put down for the road between Featherston and Masterton, and only £B,OOO for the road between Masterton and Castle Point. One thing 1 we want to point out to our representatives, and it is this, that unless means are taken either to increase the revenue, or to reduce the proposed expenditure, there is no use in their proposing to have sums put on the Estimates for this work or that, however necessary or desirable such works may be. A tax on lands, not included in road districts, would be a means of increasing the revenue; a reduction of 10 per cent in official salaries above a given sum—as has been done at Otago —would be one means of diminishing the expenditure. We observe that it is proposed to expend £3OOO on a tramway at Manawatu, that £I2OO is put down for a mail coach to Wanganui; that £IO,OOO is to be expended on Wanganui bridge, that £SOO is to be presented to Walter Buller, and no less than £346 to messengers to public offices, when the work was formerly well done for less than a third of that amount. There is no subsidy to be granted for & mail coach to the Wairsrapa; there is no sum put on the Estimates for a bridge over the Ruaraahunga; nothing for the survey of the valley of the Tauherenikau; while the sum of £1165 6s 6d, is put down for English agencies—we point out this matter because the plural number in this instance, and under the circumstances, is to say the least, suspicious.

The Provincial Treasurer thus explains the reason why so small a sum has been placed on the Estimates for the Wairarapa;— When I took office X found very heavy liabilities, of which I had no conception whatever before assuming the duties. I found that on the 27th June, 1866, the day on which I was gazetted, the Government had an overdrawn account at the Bank of £9,960; in addition to that, Wanganui Bridge debentures had been sold, up to that date, to the extent of £4,500, and that money, instead of being kept sacred and placed to a separate and distinct account, in accordance with the 9th clause of the Wanganui Bridge Act, passed in the 10th session of the Council, had been placed in the general chest, and the whole of it had been spent before I assumed office. With the overdrawn account of £9,960, and the Wanganui debentures, £4,500, there was debt against the Province of £14,460. The consequence of this was that the contract for the Wanganui bridge having been entered into I had to provide the money to meet three quarters of the expenses,

according to the terms of the contract; so that instead of the money being available, by having been kept sacred I had to pay it out of the ordinary revenue of the last financial year. Furthermore, in regard to the £9960 overdrawn account, the whole of that I have paid, and at the commencement : of the present financial year, not only had I done so, but there was actually a balance to the credit of the Province at the Bank. I mention these facts, not in order to throw any blame upon the kte Government, but to show the position in which I, as Treasurer, was placed at the time I took office; and. therefore, I trust that hon. members and especially those from the country, will not deem that there is any blame to be attached to the present Government for not placing a larger amount upon the Estimates far works in their districts.”

The foregoing shows how the affairs of the Province were mismanaged by the former Executive, but it does not justify the present Executive in their neglect of this district. If the present financial condition of the Province is unsatisfactory, the more reason there is for cutting 4own, and not increasing, the civil expenditure. But, as if to give the lie to his own statement, the Provincial Treasurer laid a return on the table which shows that while the liabilities of the Province amount to £269,292 its assets amount to £739,383 leaving a balance in favor of the Province of nearly half a million.