PROVINCIAL ACCOUNTS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1201, 11 August 1874, Page 4

PROVINCIAL ACCOUNTS.

[WJJSTI'OUT EVENING STAR.] The abstract of receipts and disbursements of the Provincial Treasurer during the quarter ended 30lh June, 1871, has been published. The total receipts were £12,437 5s -Id ; the total disbursements, £l-1,771 Ga 3d ; of which £ll2 is unaccounted for. The principal items of receipt are: Capitation allowance, £llBB 9s 10] ; liquor licenses, £lOlB 15s ; goklfields revenue, £GSG 13s sd; miners'rights, registration fees, &c., £2OGG 19s 9d ; gold duty, £1207 3s Id; and land receipts, £llll 12s lid. The disbursements include Executive establishment, and lands and public works olliees, £llls Is 3d; Wardens, jails, and police, £2730 3s Id; Provincial Couucil, £B4-1 2s 3d; charity, hospitals, and lunatic asylum, £2083 13s 9d; education, £1321 19s Od; miscellaneous, £932 3s Gd (of which printing and advertising has cost £320 ; electoral purposes, £92 ; and general contingencies, £130) ; public works, £-1221 lis 8d (including buildings on S. W. Goklfields, £IG9 19s 9d ; and roads and bridges on goklfields, £307 lis 2d). Tiie expenditure by Local Goklfields Revenues Board is stated at £515 Ss 8d ; the " JDog Act " figures at £223 4a 7d ; protection to animals, £3 13s 3d ; and unaccounted advances, £ll2. Glancing through these items to find where retrenchment has been made manifest, very little reliable information will be gleaned. Executive charges are increased, Provincial Council chargesareoutof all pro. portion to services rendered, and the item " Miscellaneous " still affords a convenient hiding place for a host of unconsidered t riflea. In the item of public works the goklfields figure very meagrely, the chief expenditure having been that made by the Local Boards so vehemently decried by the Provincial Secretary. The mysterious item "Dog Act," whatever it mav comprise, is a constantly increasing quantity, being £2l in excess of the return for the corresponding quarter in 1873. Taken all in all, the state-

ment may be accepted aa proving nothing inoro plainly than that the sooner the very petty establishment of Nelson Province becomes merged in one of larger proportions and more progressive policy tho hotter for the people of tho province.