MR. RICHMOND’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 212, 11 October 1860, Page 3

MR. RICHMOND’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Made 4th September, 1860. 1

Mr. Richmond first showed the position of the half million loan 0f18,56. • This had been divided into three portions,—lst. £200,000 had been set apart for the discharge of the jVew Zealand. Company’s debt 2nd. £120,000 was applied for the payment of any public debt of the colony which, should be due on the Ist January, 1858. '3rd. £IBO,OOO was appropriated to the purchase of land from the natives of this island. '

to be applied to the payment of Scott’s debentures, £3,675 16s, and a small amounc of the old Colonial debentures.

Of the £IBO,OOO. there has-been expended the sum< of £78,003 Bs. 4d., leaving available for purchasing land £101,906' 11s. Bd. Of the £IBO.OOO, £54,000 was allotted to the province of ITellington, which must be apportioned between the-present province and that of Hawke’s Bay. It will be for the house to say what division should be made. If £27,000 is given to each, 7/awke’s Bay having received- £30,188 10s. Bd., will have £3,188 10s. Bd. to repay, and Wellington £10,805 7s. 9d. to receive. • Of the half millionj there ; still remains unraised £70,000, of; which £2ojooo> is at, call in the Union Bank, Auckland.

Mr. TEichmond then made a- statement of Revenue and Expenditure. He first explained the supplementary expenditure of 1857-8 and 1858-9, amounting to consistingof—£2,580 paid for rifles 1,168 extra expences of the General Assembly of 1858 1,017 extra expenditure in taking the Census of 1858 4,336 paid for inter-colonial and interprovincial steam services. 1,073 made up of a number of small items.

The total saving during these years (chiefly in the departments of the Executive Government) is 7989£. 3s. 4d., which, deducted from 9008 Z. 12s. 6d, the extra expenditure of 1858-9, leaves about 1000 Z., the only sum he would have required to ask the house for, but for the regulation that the 'surplus of income oT the General Government, after deducting the authorized (hot the actual) expenditure, is payable to the provinces. Mr. Richmond, however, denied any obligation to pay to the Superintendents balances they did not expect ; the real and only duty of the General Government was to see that the various departments of Provincial expenditure,—namely, their Executive, Police, Gaols, Harbours,/Tospitals, and local laws, be provided for. Of Revenue and Expenditure for 1859-60 (which could not be stated exactly, as the Audit act allows six months for the making up of accounts from the termination of each financial period)—

The Ordinary Revenue is estimated at £202,771 ss. Id.

Expenditure

1. Permanent charges, including that portion of the Annual charge of the debt borne by the Colony, and , not refunded by . particular provinces, including also the Native school fund of 70001. per annum, and the

Out of this large surplus of Revenue will le paid the supplementary expenditure of 18578 and 1858-;9, with the exception of: the cost of the rifles. Out of the same surplus it is proposed to defray the unauthorized expenditure of 1859-60, 29,613/. 10s. 9d., which is

Thus three-eighths of the gross Customs collections for the Provincial Government

services may be rootle up* The account is— Gross Customs receipts,. 1858-59, ,£160,471 1859-60, 177,645 338,116 Three-eighths...... £126,792 Of which there has been or will be distributed, in 1853-59.... £70,559 1860-60 56,028 - £126,587

The actual payments to the Province; have been so adjusted that their respective surplus revenue accounts were nearly balanced on th‘> 30th June last. l}he “ Surplus Revenue act, 1858,’’ gives some provinces more, and someless, according to the amount of the local* charges of government, and it is desirably that these sums should be given regularly from, year to year. This has been, and will be, the. rule of the government.

Mivßichmond then gave the estimate of Revenue-and .Sk.penditur.a-for. 1860-61'., ;

W^ys-AfiD-MEANSj.IB6O-6‘1.. Customs ...£1930<04 Post Office Ii.OUO* Judicial 12,300) Registration of. Deeds .... 5,000 „ of. Births, Deaths, and Marriages .......... 800Crown Grant Fees 1,500 • Land Claims Settlement . act, 1856... 500 • Miscellaneous 500 • £224,600;. The Customs revenue was Increase, in 1857-58, 188.575/. ... 18 p.c, in 1858-59, 160,471/. ... 16 „ in 1859-60, 177,645/. ... ■ 10£ „

The increase of Customs lias been reckoned afr 9 per cent; on that of last year, which is less. than the increase for some years past. The new Tariff has realised the expected, increase of revenue, about 4 per cent. The • necessity for an addition to the revenue arose ■ from the demands of the Imperial government for a contribution to the military expenditure. Mr. Richmond continued, —“ Any„attempt to increase any of the duties on specified articles will require the greafes f care, for • we have certainly reached that point m our indirect taxation of the specific I ,;r tides, atwhich any increase will probably tell heavily in.diminishing consumption, and wi.l therefi re be an evil to the country and a doubtful'ad-, vantage to the Exchequer, yTnd I must say I rejoice that we were not induced in 1858 toad upon the recommendation which reached., us from several quarters, to make a more con. siderable increase than we did upon Spirit 3 and Tobacco, to repeal the Tonnage duties and to rely wholly upon the specified articles.’ »>-

Estimates of Expenditure, 1860-01. Permanent Charges <£22,000 Civil List 19,000 Appropriations. Class 1. —Executive 4.250 Class 2. —Legislative 7,700 Electoral 3,300 Audit ........... 570 Class 3. —Judicial..... 16,000 Class 4.—Registrars of Births, Death?, and Marriages, of Deeds and Statistical Department 7,100 Class s.—Customs 19,150.. Class 6.—-Postal 39,500. Class 7. —Military 10,700. Class 8. —Native (in addittou to Civil Li5t)............. 3,500 ‘ Class 9.—-Miscellaneous 7,300 Buildings .................. 2,750 Total .<£1.63,420

The head Permanent Charges does not include that portion of the interest and sinking fund of the English Loan which : is a., special charge upon particular Provinces, but, only the interest and sinking fund payment, on the 120,000/. The same head also in-, eludes an additional sum of 2000/. for interest, to which I shall hereafter refer. — Executive. We have this year removed from un-. der this head the Statistical Department ami the Audit, which do not properly belong to. it. The Estimates under this head will be found very moderate.— Leg : slatioe.’ The cost of the present session of t : l.e assembly will be defrayed by this vote and by the vote of last financial year,which amounts to nearly 3,000/. Electoral. This head comprises a number of; small sums which have been allocated as the salaries of various Electoral offices—the duties of which are fast increasing in weight. Hitherto the duties of these offices have been discharged, mostly, by /Resident Magistrates. and other officers without separate remunera-. tion. We now, propose to apportion a district , salary to the Electoral Offices—our principlebeing, that no office should appear to be unpaid. In most cases, the salary of the main office, under the head, of Judicial, has been proportionately, reduced. But the present holders will be in,no.ways affected because they will contiuue to hold, and to discharge,, the duties of the conjoint offices.— There is no increase here owing to the estab-' lishment of Zfistriet Courts and, new Magistrates rendered indispensable by the. increasing population of the colony. There is however a great increase in the Revenue arising from fees, fin.es, and penalties., The people of New Zealand are suprisingly fond of law.. The produce of fees, flues, and penalties in theCanterbury Province is astonishing,—Registration Departments. These comprise tln^

Registrar General’s Department, otherwise called the Statistical Department, the Registrars of Births, Deaths,- and Marriages, who are paid by fees of office, and lastly the Registrars of Deeds. 2'liese will be new offices created under the Bill for establishing a Zand •Registry, which is now under the consideration of the Legislative Council. The Committee will see that the revenue is credited with 5,0002., as the probable produce of the fees under this act. Both receipts and expenditure are estimated for a full year. But both receipts and expenditure will only be for say (six) months. Expenditure will probably be a larger amount below estimate than revenue. At all events, the balance of revenue and expenditure will not be sensibly disturbed either way.—Customs. The increase /under this head is chiefly due to the expanding wants of the department in the two Southern Provinces, especially in Ot go, where the revenue is rapidly increasing, and the officers have been overworked and underpaid.— Postal. The Steam Vote, pn po e ’ under this head, covers the cost of the existing services, and provides 5,0002. for c n rbution to some ocean line of steamers. Ti e mail s’eamer service is, in ordinary times, our great financial difficulty—steam on the one side, and the Provincial fths on the other, are the difficulties. — Military. This bead comprises 5,0002. for the erection and repair of barracks. The remainder is for militia staff arid incidentals.— Native. Of the sura of 3,5002., 2,5002. has been already voted by this committee, for the probable cost of t e next conference of Aative chiefs, The remaining 1,0002. is a proposed addition to the fund available for the salaries of Native chiefs. This 'House, has already (in Committee of the whole) recorded its approval of the system of dividing the whole Native territory into districts, and appointing a chief in each as the organ of communication with the Government. The sum now in question is to be applied in aid of the Civil List, towards the remuneration of these chiefs. Buildings. This is a new head, comprising the cost of the erection of buildings required for the service of the General Government, and 5002. for preparing site of Custom House at Lyttleton, 1,5002. is appropriated for new Custom House and Post Office at Dunedin.

This sum is short of three-eighths of the estimated Customs, which would amount to 72,3752. But there is a sum of 8,1332. 9s. Id , long standing to Suspense Account, which it is not necessary any longer to withhold from distribution. I propose therefore to continue the. advances of three-eighths of the Customs, if possible, throughout, the whole of the current year, and if need be, to bring.this sum of 8,1332. to revenue account in aid of the revenue of this year, ending June 30, 1861. With this aid, and with the savings that will probably be- made, I have little doubt that the existing rate of advances may be safely continued. I have taken no notice of the Territorial revenue, which is paid into the provincial chests, and which is estimated (though estimates of this branch of receipts are very precarious) at .£242,700. Altogether, the annual revenues of the colony, counting Zand fund as revenue, are now little, if at all, less than half a million. It is a wonderful country. The more I see of it, the more I am astonished at its resources. It is well, indeed, that it is so, for our burdens also are extraordinarily heavy. Hon. members, I daresay, find the totals of the Estimates large. We hope they may be able to show us how to reduce those totals without injury to the public service. ' IV.—The fourth and last subject of which I have to speak is the mode in which we propose to meet the extraordinary expenses entailed upon the colony by the native war in Taranaki, and certain other extraordinary expenses which we mean to ask the leave of this house to incur at some future time. By the expenses attendant on the war, I do not mean those possible—but I hope by no means probable—demands, which the Imperial Government may make upon the colony for reimbursement of some part of the cost of the war. I mean those local expenses which—in the present state of things—naturally and necessarily fall upon the. Colonial government, or which we ought, in my opinion, to show ourselves ready and willing to assume. Of these, the principal expence which has at present fallen bpon us is that of arming the militia and volunteer corps. First, there is the cost of rifles and other firearms, which we have purchased or have ordered from England.

Sir, the remaining burthens of the wa r which' have hitherto actually fallen upon us have not been so heavy as is immagined. As to the future liabilities, which one hon. member, I believe, wished that I should estimate, I should be glad to do so if I had any data. If the lion, member wants to know how much the war will cost, will lie. first tell me how long the war will last. ? I will tell the committee shortly what have been our disbursements down to /August. We, have paid—- 4 . - • ,

We also propose to charge, as an extraordinary expense entailed by the present state of affairs, the cost of the Conference of Native Chiefs just terminated —£3,500. These sums, with the cost of arms, exceed £40,000. But for the arms £12,000 or £15,000 will probably not be payable within the financial year ; and portions of the other payments will be the subject of adjustment with the Imperial Government. We propose to ask the house to make provision for laying down a line of electiic telegraph connecting the principal settlements. This work is evidently of the utmost importance both for civil and military purposes, and there are in the present state of the colony obvious reasons for undertaking it as soon as possible, if the means can be found.

There are two other great public works, to the execution of which our attention has been directed at the request of this house—namely, a general Lunatic Asylum, and a Central prison for the confinement of persons under sen fence of penal servitude or for long terms of imprisonment. It may, at first sight, appear strange that we should, at the present time, recommend the house to incur. expense for these purposes. But wise outlay is true thrift, and we believe that this expenditure we propose is a wise expenditure. For these four purposes, then, —for the War expenditure—Electric telegraph—Gaol —and Lunatic Asylum —we propose to raise a loan of 150,0002.; say at six per cent, interest, with two per cent, sinking fund, to be negociated in London. We do not anticipate that more than 50,0002, will be actually raised on account of the proposed new loan during the current financial year, and we have provided, under the head “ Permanent Charges,” the sum of 20002. to meet the interest and sinking fund payment, for six months, upon this sura of 50,0002. But we further propose that this sum of 20002. shall also be applicable to meet the interest on Exchequer bills, which we propose to ask power to issue, to the extent of not exceeding 25,0002. It has long been obvious to me that by means of exchequer bills, or in some similar way, it would he necessary to allow the Treasury a working balance. The transactions of the colony are growing in magnitude, and the Treasury is continually called upon to make payments, in advance of revenue, to a heavy amount—particularly on account of the English loan and the Ateam services. I see plainly that we cannot get on without the adoption of this, or some similar financial expedient for anticipating revenue. It is possible that the Savings’ Banks might be willing to avail themselves of these bills as an investment, and there are-other funds which might be rendered available through the : means of such securities.

Of the first portion all has been expended,.except , v mi. £1/460 18 11 An d the balance retnaining;of the £120,000 ;.9/642; 16 5 \ ''''-. : v r";,^ ; ;iW.£ll J 123"15. *4 2?here*being ; a-balance payable i i : ,i to.thejErovince^pf^Auckland at ! for the !new, (loverhraant House (which costs.£10/Q00) 7 7 There ; remains a; balance ; in -U - ' baud.of . > . i ; ; . > v 3,812 7 9

New Plymouth guarantee of 2200/ ..... 20,836 2 9 2. Civil List 19,000 0 0 3. Under Appropriation act No. 2 10 0 .£108,952 12 9

as follows : Original bonus to Coleman Co. Addition for direct line from 10,000 0 0 Sydney to Auckland ...... 6,000 0 0 Bonus to White Swan for service between Auckland and Wellington 4,000 0 0 Colonial contribution to the general service via Suez, from 1st November, 1858, to 30th June, I860, at 6000Z. per annum 10,000 0 0 Subsidy to 2'asmanian Maid [chargeable ultimately against the province) 750 0 0 Local Posts in Zfawke’s Bay and Overland mail services Deputy Governor’s salary and 770 0 0 additions to the Begistrar General’s department 221 13 6 For the establishment of District Courts .. .* 2,776 16 11 Increased charge in Customs department :......! 1,400 O 0 Various miscellaneous charges 1,665 I 0 0 •£37,613 11 9 Allowed for Steam services under Appropriation act, 1158, No. 2 '8,000 0 0 29,613 10 9

Adding therefore to the expenditure of 1859-60, given above :...108,952 12 9 the supplementary expenditure of 1859-60, 10, 1541., 5s. 7d. less cost of rifles to he otherwise provided for, 2,459?. 9s: lid 7,714 15: 8 Additional supplementary, 1 1858-59 '461 9 0 Supplementary, 1859-60 ...... 29,613' 10 ' 9 146,742 8 2 There remains an estimated surplus of .. 56,028 16 11 . ! £202,771 5 i

the probable revenue, then, of 1860 is .£224,600 0 0 The probable expenditure 1G3,420 0 0 The probable surplus. . . 61,180 0 0

JEstjmate of Cost of Arms. /j?rras purchased and paid for £3,931 19 9 Arms received and not paid for, estimated cost of. . 6,709 0 0 Arms ordered from England, namely,—3000 rifles, 15,2401.; 300 carbines, 1500/.; 100 revolvers, 500/.; cavalry appointments, 1,500/. . 18,740 0 0 Total estimate for fire-arms ' ' ' 9 29,380 19 9

For block-houses and "repairs to ZJritomart Battery . .£3,190 10 1 To the l.C.R.M. Company, for conveyance of women ami children from Taranaki and other special services—subject to future adjustment 2000 0 0 For the gun-boat Caroline, fitting and stores .... 720 19 10 Miscellaneous —Bonus toWonga Wonga 270Z.; pay of Militia officers and drill instructors, and other expenses of training 878 1. 2 7 ; Volunteers’ pay and rations on actual service 315Z. 18 9 ; Taranaki Militia, clothing, &c. 722 1. 7 11; Sundries 1,5 28J. 3 3 3,714 12 6 Total . . .£9,626 2 5