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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 537, 31 July 1869, Page 2

A coxsidicraju/i: portion of the space of our present number is occupied by the very complete and interesting summary of Mr Algol's Financial Statement, for the early and costless receipt of which we are indebted to the consideration and courtesy of the Telegraph Department. Mr Vogel did not commence his statement in the House until half-past seven o'clock on Thursday evening, and an hour after midnight such of it as \vc publish was received in Westport, as at the other telegraphic stations on the Coast. For this promptitude in its transmission we prefer rather to thank the Government, than to pretend that it was the result of any pecuniary outlay on our part or of the expenditure oi any " midnight oil " on the part of " our own correspondent." AVc observe that a contemporary is less demonstrative in his thankfulness for this act of attention and liberality on the part of the Government, and it is probable that the Colonial Treasurer will be equally undemonstrative in the thank fulness which he is likely to feel for the incoherent version of his statement which, in that instance, the printer has succeeded in producing. Tor the present we can only glance at a few of the items which, by the novelty or importance of the principles enunciated, form prominent points of the Treasurer's statement. Of the speech as a whole we do not doubt that, on both sides of the House, a favorable impression has been formed. Although he has been preceded by able Treasurers, Mr Vogel is not a novice in finance, or in the exercise of the faculty of framing a Budget. But if there is anything for which he will receive credit from all but the gentlemen who have preceded him in office it will be his condemnation of the system of accounts which has confused both the Treasury and the taxpayers of this Colony for the past few years. It is only to be hoped that the changes which he suggests or promises as features of his system of management will be as faithfully carried out and as successful as the radical improvements which, &3 Provincial Treasurer, he effected in Otago. It would have been worth something handsome to our own immediate district had the accounts between the Colony and the Provinces been always kept in some intelligible shape, and that Nelson has been the only sufferer by the elaborately' "mixed" system of accounts in which the Treasury Department has hitherto delighted is by no means likely. On the subject of Provincial loans, the Treasurer does not speak very definitely or encouragingly, but it is at least satisfactory that

there is to be some fixed regulation with regard to Provincial overdrafts. Provincial loans will, no doubt, be permissible as the country recovers itself, and as a means to that end, perhaps the proposed loan for road-making in the North Island is as important as an)' portion of the financial scheme, or as any change lor the better that could occur in the commercial condition of the country. Of course that proposal has yet to receive the sanction of the House, and it is rather significant of its fate that one of the Ministry, Mr Dillon Bell, does not give it his approval. Should it be passed, and the loan be effected, there will undoubtedly be more achieved by it in the direction of establishing peace in the country than could possibly be effected by all the powder and shot which might be included in the Colony's yearly outlay for defence.

The imposition of a duty on grain and flour is rather antagonistic to the principles which are presumed to prevail in the colonies of a free-trade couutry like England, but that such a proposal would be made has for some time been a very probable and, to many, an acceptable contingency. The Chambers of Commerce in different parts of the country have for some time indicated a feeling in favor of the imposition of such a duty, and if it is not justifiable in principle, it may at least be so as a measure of expediency against the policy which surrounding colonies have lately chosen to adopt. With the producer —and he is probably in a majority in the House of Representatives—it will, no doubt, be <: popular." To the consumer—and he is most numerously represented in our mining communities—it will involve a tax by no means palatable. It is a trilling and only casual intimation which the Treasurer makes when he states that a uniform rate of charges for telegraphic messages will in future be made, irrespective of distance ; but it is au intimation which is not without interest in Westport, situated as it is at the extreme end of the telegraphic system of the country. To the commercial community, as well as to the Press, the present rate of charges is a very serious burden, and any amelioration of these charges must be a welcome change to many. It is to be hoped that there will be no delay in giving the proposal due effect. Thus cuivorily noticed, wo recommend the Treasurer's Statement to the attentive and close perusal of those of our readers who desire to be acquainted with the present financial position of the Colony.