THE CHEVIOT ESTATE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4940, 1 February 1895, Page 3

THE CHEVIOT ESTATE.

The Australasian Insurance anil Banking Record publishes the following intelligent review of the Cheviot Estate purchase : The results of the New Zealand Government purchases of private estates, as stated by the Colonial Treasurer, at Auckland, on 10th December, are misleading. He gave the figures for the financial year 1893-94, and stated that the rents I received in cash, from the Cheviot Estate, paid 4.8 per cent, on £253,902 Referring to the accounts submitted with tbe Budget on 24th July last, we find that after adding expenditure for surveys, roads, Ac, the capital value of the estate was placed at £268,346 8s 3d. Against this were the following receipts for capital account, viz:—Land sales, for cash, £4695 5s 8d; and insurance on buildings destroyed by lire, £1,400; together, £6095 5s 8d; which being deducted from the outj lay, leaves the net capital cost at 131 st March, 1894, at £262,251 2s 7d. Revemio was made up as follows : Rents from lands, £11,873 0s 8(1; rent of buildings, £241 7s 2d; shipping and port charges, £3Ol ISs Id; and miscellaneous, £llss lOd; making in all, £12,427 lis 9d. The statoment does not, however, include the interest upon the debentures given to the vendors, viz., 5 per cent, on £200,000, and i\ per cent, on £50,000. Nor does it, so far as can be traced, include cost of administration. The true results are, therefore, as follows :

.Revenue for year £12,42711 9' Upturn on capital account 4.73% Interest naidondebeiiturcs and interest on balance of purchase money, £10,220, atsayjperccnt £12,G58 1G O IS'ct loss for the year, to which is to beadded cost of administration ... 231 4 3 For the future it is true that the debentures—£2so,ooo—are included in the conversion operations of the Agent-General, but although the rate to be paid under conversion is 3? percent, yet expenses of dotation and premium will bring up the effective rate to something like 4 per cent. This will involve an annual interest charge of about £IO,OOO per annum, and as the full rental was stated in the Budget speech at £13,330, about £3,500 will be left to defray the cost of keeping up roads, etc, and the cost of administration. The outlook is, therefore, that the purchase of the Cheviot Estate will not prove to be a profitable experiment, and certainly itisiiofcof a character to command the support of the British investor, who has ultimately found the money for the purchase. The Colonial Treasurer in his Auckland speech, referred also to the returns of the smaller estates acqnired by the Government, but his percentages arc absolutely at variance with the accounts appended to the Budget speech. To the amounts paid in debentures for these estates are added incidental expenses, but for what reason is not apparent, and in tlm following statement we will tako the liberty to charge them against revenue :

ACCOUNT TOR THE YEAR ENDED 31sT MARCH, 1894. Purchase money, fiyo cs- *«'«' £36,785 3 8 Koceipts for year deriyed fromrentsand lease fees 78516 7 | Charges— Incidentalcjpensesonpurc'"ases 756 jc g Interest on debentures is. sued £38,966 at 4| per cen t 1,753 9 5 Cost of administration ... (?) Nctresult... Considerably less than nil The Colonial Treasurer may be able to explain the discrepances between his platform utterances (and their obvious and th 5 published Colony. We* planationcan be. and i$ woul(| appear either that'' Be is not averse t6 misleading the' public, or. that ho/je not competent' to rnake. a statement satisfactory' to tphesf