CRICKET.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 750, 7 April 1877, Page 2

CRICKET.

ZINGARI C C y. CAMBRIDGE. Tins match was phyed at Cambridge .on Saturday the 3.lst March, and as will be seen resulted iu a victory for the visitors ou the first innings. The w.eathen was very mi favourable, rain falling nearly all the morning, so that it was v.-ry slate, when play commenced, and th L match. was not therefore' finished. The Zingiiri wont to the wickets first and made a total of 111 runs before'the last wicket fell. J Vy.ood being not out for 34 runs obtained'in a fine free style without a chance. Beaucainp. 15 ;'' Sandesj 13 J Leighton, 11 ; and N R Cox, 10, just into double figures. The latter- playing as usual carefully and keeping down the bowling for a long time before being disponed of. Jones and Sthbbihs boiled for Cambridge, the former getting s..and the latter 4 wickets. For Cambridge, Ciare put top score with 13,' being the only one who obtained double^figures, though Mc'lutosh played' long and patiently for his 7, and Rosewas not out tor 9. The innings closed for 60, including 8 extras of which 4 were byes, not so bad considering the pace of : thd bowling.; The long stopping too of Gleming for Cambridge 1 was first class, he orilyj.givmg 8 byes in the two Jong innings; In the second iucinga of the Z C : C, "J Wood again scored well, placing 27 to his credit whilst KB Cox carried his bat for : 39 gob well and freely. The innings closed tor 94, making a grand total of 205. As it was within a few miriutes of six o'clock when the Zingari had finished their iunings, the Cambridge men did riot go in aj;ain and so the match ended. For,' Zingari, E B Cox and J Wood did nearly alt too bowling, the latter getting six and the former, three wickets, only one ehange buing necessary. The fielding on both sides was very good, more particularly that of the Z C C meu who of course hive had niucu more practice together the others. Cambridge were weak iu bowling not having been able to put on changes when required although we think that Hiuton should have been put ouc in the first innings, if from nothiug elan from the fact of his being left-handed,; which would have puzzled his opponents. Jones, with practice will be a good bowler as he is very straight indeed, and ouly requires a little more variation in pitch and speed to make him hard to play, cjtubbius did noc bowl so well as usinl but then he had too much of it and must have been very tired, which was also the casu with Jones. If Cambridge were to play Ngaruawahia with the same tenm that; they had ou Saturday last result would have been very different if indeed it was not altered altogetuer, add the hojt put ou thn other leg. The following are the scores. ZINGARI C. C. lax INNINGS Danvers, b Jones ... 0 N II Cox, b Stubbings 10 Forward, c Melutosh, b Stubbings... 5 EB Cox, b June, ... ... ... 6 Saudes, b Stubbings ... ... ~, 13 C C Wood, b Stubbings 4 J Wood, not out ... 34 Bjauchamp, b Jones ... 15 fci Pilling bStsele ... 1 E Cox, c Clare, b Jones 3 Leigh f .ou, lbvv Jones ... ... ... H Extras, b 5, lb 1, w 3 9 Total 11l 2sd INNINGS. Danvers b Jones ... o E Pilling, c Parker, b Jones ... o Leighton, c and b Stubbings ... 4 Forward, b Stubbings ... ... 5 C C Wood, b Stubbings 2 J W Wood, c Clemming, b Hinton 27 E B Cox, not out 39 Sandes, c and b Jones ~, 8 Q N Cox, IbAV Clare ... ". 0 Beauchamp, b Stubbings Jlt ~, 1 G Cox, c Hinton, b Stubbings ... 0 Evtras, b3, lb 2, w 3 8 94 111 Total ~206 Cambridge c c. Ist innings. Stubbing a, c Forward, b J Wood ... 4 Mcintosh, c and b E B Cox ... 7 Hinton, b J Wood 6 Clemming, c Forward, b J Wood ... 3 Steel, lbw b J Wo >d 2 Clare, c Leighton, b E B Cox ... 13 Parr, c Forward, b J Wood ... 4 Parker, b E B Cox ... 0 Rom, uot out 9 Tanner, b J Wood 1 Jones, c N R Cox, b Pilling 3 Extras, b 4, lb 2, w2 8 an

ON THE RECENT ECONOMIC PROGRESS, £F ZEABy ?(Readf|for M* StatiaiicJfiSociety, 290h fWe gjjfe J||to the ! <Herald,' some passesi fry Mr Hamilton's paper, those portions which show the opiniohwfbrmed at home by a compere cent policy COLONIAL DEBT : ITS OUTLAY AND COMPARATIVE PRESSURE. f , *T , statement of June, 1870, that the debt then Btood ..thus:— •'"• • P«ne|ral.Government of the *£oiony ~r..; ,i. .> ,<„ £4,347,866 Provincial debta »-.J. ;;■?", , ... £3.208,350 | .^,^^. ; , £7,556,216 And on reference to Table 1, is will be observed that out of £4,300,000 no less £3,300,000 was expanded for native and defence purposes, or in other words unproductively oaH?ar.; But subsequently to 1870 the loans have been principally expended on immigration, public works, and the purchase of land. The amounts.under, the,chief .heads of expenditure have been as follows to 30ch June, 187 ft i--00 ;: y;

On railways ... £6,198 272 „ roads and bridges ... 700,434 ~ water races, to. develope ,! mines ■ ..'£ -i.;; ' ... 280,920 ' "„" public buildings and other * improvements' < ... 299,250 ~ telegraphy . 228 284 „ land'parcbasea 3 :.v ... 445 404 „ immigration ... ... 1,113,490 I'^T&ai 1 ;r ''\„' r - ... £9,263,054

I shall presently comment in detail on some df t'he" foregoing items. There can be no doubt that this expen-r-ditujre, however desirable and beneficial ; it, may - has,nevertheless been pushed forward too quickly. The original intention in 1870 was to raise 10 millio^sterling,to;be;.expended as above stated in the. course of 10 years ; and a general "system of trunk' railways and roads:rwas then laid ,down. But these ■plans have not been adhered to, owing, I believe, chiefly if not altogether, to the pressure p.f the Provincial Governments ; ihe; railways'^were:in : consequence commenced fractionally and- not upon a .general system. v The colony, his thus been committee! to ah amount of railway expenditure at would hive < .been more judicious to,spread orer a period at least'twice as ! long ; ; so that instead of a npmber of lines, all/ under construction at the same time, according to the demands of the. various provinces, they might have been finished successively, and eai4-uncompleted have' yielded a return. According to. the latest return, there are at present than twelve lines in of construction throughout the ijolpny, Diesides eightniore under survey. Governments and Legislatures' were" the means by which New Zealand was ic'olonised simultaneously at various points, instead of spreading from . ope centre j. and :were doubtless beneficial :ip the early-days of the colony in developing local works and attracting immigrants, and this at 'a time-when there was little between the provinces j ;but for many, years their influence has been mischievous, owing to constant conflict with the Central Government, especially on points of finance.; each province spending in excess of income, and scrambling "f6r ? its Share of public loaus, as well as contending for local interests in the narrowest spirit,and by means of caballing, or : "-16g-rolling," putting a prossu.-o on : the General Government, which the latter could -<not .-a!vvaya.. resist. The consequence has i/een the same with all public works as with railways,—that too much expenditure.-'has been undersell at a time, and Ihe necessity of continual borrowing has arisen, to some extent affecting the credit: of the. colony. It is satisfactory, therefore, to know that this unfortun te. stato of afftirs has been terminated by the : abjliti jn of the provincial legislatures, so that the finances, public lands, and public works, together with the entire administration of the colony, will be carried on by one Central Gj* vernmerit, while purely local affairs will be managed by municipal und county authorities. Whatever may have beeu the cause, the fact, however, remains that the debt of New Zealand, on the 30 hj June of either year stood thus, excluding floating debt in either case : Debt er Aunna l ? er Head Head £ £ a .1 £ £ 3 d 1870... 7,500,00'J 2S 12 I 474,u00 1 17 5 1876... 11,700,000 46 15 01,015,0J0 2 10 9 lacrflase . Bat the pressure of the public debt on a community is nut to be estimated by the simple process of counting heads. Regard mint also be had to the wealth and resouroes of the population. It would be easy to give examples in support of this proposition, but it will be sufficient for my purpose to cite tie experience of the United Kingdom, by contrasting the debt after the close of the great war, or say the year 1817 with 1876 : 1817. Annual Debt Per Head Charge Per Head ££ad£ £ p. A 850,853,000 42 8 9 32,000,000 112 4 1875-76. 777,000,000 23 9 6 27,400,000 016 1 No one can doubt that, with our increased wealth aud resources, we could not bear a debt of £42 8s 9d per head, with a charge of £1 12s 41 per head, much more easily than our predecessors did in ISI7 ; nor would it hinder our progress any more than it did thei s. The enormous growth of our national debt was, moreover, occasioned entirely by war expenditure, whereas, as has beeu shown above, a large pro the debb of New Zealand exists in the form of reproductive works ; besides which there are other discrepancies between the natioaai aud colonial debts. Consideration is also clue to the fact that our national debt was borrowed at home, whereas the New Zealand loans have been raised in the Uuited Kingdom. It would be satisfactory, were it possible, accurately to contrast the aggregate income of New Zealand and the United Kingdom, as well as the public debt and annual charge per head of the population in each country. Sir Julius Vogel in 1873 formed an estimate of the gross iucome of the colonists iu comparison with Mr Dudley Baxter's estimate for the United Kiugdom in 187 U. Omitting the debt incurred for railways and other reproductive works in the colony, also of provincial debts specially secured on the Crown lands, so as to arrive at a fair comparison, the results were worked out as follows, viz.:— Per cent. New Zealand, p9r-ceutage of debt charge ou aggregate income... 1.2 United Kingdom "... 2.8 But both these results are confessedly

'founded oa estimate* b a9ed oa tbe best available data, aud are only stated as pNb^blovappjjojim^joM..,, Neverthele*, we ore, uot without the means of iuaticatiog •XurtworthV;oom. i , parisons as to the well-being of th) .New;, Zealanders. , : ; i.) ; So far, iodied, as the workmg c.hwses are concerned, an examination of Table 111 as to wages and tLe cost of living will show that they »re muoh better off than at home, as the wages aro higher in the colony, while the cost of provisions is Again, it may be safely inferred that the aggregate income of the. c colanistß ;is more per head than in tho United Kingdom, from the fact that the proportion of bread winners to the total population is greater—the proportion of males is 57 per cent, as against 40 per cent, at home; Ihe proportion of men in the prime of life is much greater in the colony, and there are no paupers. ' ,„ In contrasting the indebtedness of New Zealand with that of the United dom, we must add to the national debt the cost of railways, and capitalise the. the Poor Law Rates, which db iiot 'exist in the colony, thus : ! '■'■ ; » '

UNITED KOtCtDOH. National debt as, it stood •; > • .<■ , L o^^ 1875-76 ... ....... *777,000,00p Expended on the poor, ■:.. average for ten year*., ; ending Lady day, 1875, £9,216,053, capitalised at 4 per cent ... ... 230,0C0 J 000 Railways, 16,664 miles open, December, 1875: (130,000,000 <* *.1,6^7,p9P,0p0 or £49 12s Id per head for United King' ?u dom as against, £4B 17s 2d per : head for New Zealand. Or the question may, be stated jn.another form. Against, the colonial debt pf< £19,544,(100 we have to place W the credit side the value of the following assets in hand, assuming the, railways, roads, and public works, to be worth their cost, viz:-—; ■■? \ .; ~; I '■' NBW ZBATAKD. ~,,..* Sinking fund, invested spe- 1 * '' " oially by trustees ... ... V £1,200,000 Railway, expended thereon... 6,200,000 Roads, bridges, water courses, ,; ;.; and other public works...' 1,600,000 Crown lands, 34 acres, producing, in the last five years an average, jui- ]ri come of £820,000 per annum valued ot ?s 6d per acrev„. .^2,160,000

£21,653,0$ So that in poh»t of fact the public debt of the colony is amply covered by sound public assets, independently altogether of the ordinary taxable, resources, of the community, which for its nnmbefs is one of the wealthiest and most thriving in the world. ».;.( • ( ; ; BAILWATBANP BQADB/

As already stated, the amount expended on these has been; £6,I9Bj(KH) withtbe following results, viz :- ,■■•■/ -i. -•. 1873,144 miles open ; 434 mis being made 1875,200 „■;■' 62r ;j, KU ;■

1875,642 ■■! • ; ;465 :1 ' ;i ' 1 ';,,,:,:- !V : i ;^ The• latest estimate .of, earnings; on• the portions of lines now-being;worked ,i"b £445.000 for the year (including) the Canterbury and; Otago lines)* and it is calculated that this< will,yield about 3 per cent on their cost. But as the system becomes completed, there is every reason to believe that the earnings will cover 1 the interest : 6f'capital' expended; This'expectation is justified by the fact that the railways! (With one 'exception) are made on the three feet six inches gauge, and the• cost will- not therefore exceed £6.000 per mile. The value of the railways cannot, however, be estimated solely by the returns yielded on the. traffic, as it is obvious that railways open up the country through which they pass,' even more effectually than roads, and increase the value of property,'.public land private, many times beyond the cost of construction ; and it Bhould be borne in mind that the Crown lands share in this enhanced value to the fall extent. BOADB. The General Government from June, 1869, to June, 1876, expended on roads as follows, viz:— North Island • • 1,832 miles, cost, £491,636 Middle Island - - 270 miles, cost 198,880 * 2,102 £690,516 In 1875 there were altogether 814 road districts throughout the colony, but the returns are incomplete. Out. of them 275 had an estimated area of 23,800,000 acres, and 290 districts had a total in* come of £268,076, viz : Fiom Government £168j552 From rates ,* ... ... 61,426 268.076 Expenditure in 1875 was 318,620 tone difference being accounted for by balances brought and carried forward. In summarising the above facts, Mr Hamilton goes on to say that notwithstanding the rapidity with which the debt has of late years been increased,

There 13 no reason to fear the liabilities have outran either the public or private resouroes of the colony. It will be Been that the annual charge of the debt per head of the population has increased 34 per ceut, since 1870 ; but the capital and income of the population have likewise increased, and in a very much greater ratio. For example, it will also be seen from Table V, that from June, 1870, the increase from three sources alone, viz., exports, live stock, and land nnder cultivation—is estimated at 154 19a 2d, equal to £l2 3s lOd per head per annum, independently of produce raised for home consumption, and all other sources of income ; whereas daring the same period the debt charge has increased only 134 4d per head per annum. Nevertheless, I have not concealed my opinion that the resouroes of the oolony have been too freely anticipated during the past five years, and I am aware that this opinion has prevailed in financial circle). It i cannot, indeed, be denied that a feeling of uneasiness began to prevail, with the usual want of discrimination, following upon the difficulties of Turkish, Egyptian, Peruvian, and other foreign debtors. But from what has been set forth above, it will be seen that it has not been the resources of New Zealand which have been exoeeded, but the disposition, of in* vestors at home to absorb the loans, the public not being aware how ample is the security afforded by the oolony. Loan after loan has been brought-out, and the market has been over-supplied with New Zealand bonds. Before the capitalists who took up one loan had been able to place it with the investing public, another loan has followed, at a lower price, and prejudiced the previous operation. But all this haß no bearing upon the ultimate soundness of the Beourity j though I trust it may prove a timely warning to the Government of New Zealand that they mußt moderate their expenditure, even upon works of the greatest ultimate ad* vantage to the colony, and not suffer their zeal for developing its resources to outrun their power of borrowing on fair terms in the London money market.}