THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2801, 26 June 1890, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

[BY TELEGUAI'H.] Wellington, Last Night. In Committeo of Ways and Means to-night, the Financial Statement was delivered by the Hon. E. Mitchelson for the Colonial Treasurer. The Hon. K. Mitchelson said : — Mr Hamlin,—The Committeo will be pleased to learn that my anticipation last, session of ending the financial year with a small surplus has heeu more than realised, and I am sure that this gratification will be increased when I have shown, as I propose to do before I sit down, that this surplus has arisen no less from the steady improvement in the condition of the colony than from the laip'e economies and careful administration which the present Parliament inaugurated and has always insisted upon, and which the Government has,, to the best of its ability, carried out. As signs of real and very satisfactory progress, I may note particularly, on the one hand, that our Crown lands are being rapidly taken up for settlement in small areas, so that our agricultural holdings are increasing at as rapid a rate as they have at any time during our greatest prosperity; while, on the other hand, there has been an increase in the productiveness of most of our maul industries, which has been very marked in the short space of the year just closed. It is evident that with combined prudence our financial difficulties are now well under control; that if the burden in proportion to our numbers may seem great, our strength and resources are far greater still, and capable of increase, and, although we must not in any way relax the care and vigilance with which we have watched our expenditure for the last three years, and striven to extend settlement and protect industry, yet we have reason to feel sure that prosperous times have again dawned upon us, and that, humanly speaking, it rests with ourselves to make this prosperity permanent. Prosperity would now be seen to expand into broad daylight if wo could only look fairly at the bright side nf things and dweil as much on the blessings and advantages which we have in this country as upon the difficulties which beset us from time to time, anil upon which some are too fond of dwelling. It is no doubt a plain duty to keep the latter in view, so far as needed to insure their removal, but it is suicidial to ignore the counteracting facts, and the great and manifold advantages which we enjoy. I am induced to make these remarks because, during the last few months, I have been impressed in talking to travellers, both from Australia and England, with the false impression which has beeu created in those countries as to our condition. This was shown by the unfeigned astonishment of gentlemen with whom I spoke at finding us, not as they expected, out at the elbows in every sense, but in possession of every comfort and convenience of modern life, and, as a sign that this comfort and plenty were shared in by all classes, they found people well educated, fed, clothed and housed, working by long-established custom on eight hours a day (which workmen in older countries are striking to attain by law), and ready and able to enjoy holidays. Tlyit we, as a colony, have been damaged by this false impres-ion that is abroad about our state is too true. Every effort should be inado to dispel it. Parliament can, I fear, do little. The people and press might do much to correct it, as in proportion as it is corrected and the truth be known we may expect again to see a steady inflow from elsewhere of a class of competent settlers who come to stay. CONSOLIDATED VUNII. I will now ask the attention of the Committee while I place before it the transactions of t.he past year. The estimated expenditure, of the year 1889 and IS9O, including charges under special acts, and the supplementary estimates amounted to £4,150,703. The actual expenditure was £4,020,842, and there was therefore an unexpended balance «f the amount authorised of £28.809. REVENUE OF YEAR 1889 TO IS9O. My estimate of £4,087.800, of course included the primage duty. The actual amount received was £4,209,247. The total revenue therefore exceeded the estimate bv £20,447. The Customs were less than the estimate by £49,120. The stamps exceeded the estimate by £24,755, and Railway by £03,340. .1 may mention that the profit for the year from the Trust Office, amounting to £5182, luvs not been brought to credit. LAND FUND. The estimated expenditm°, of the land fund, including supplementary estimates, was £128,149, and the actual expenditure was £121.919. The expenditure, therefore, was less than the estimate by £0,290. Of this expenditure there was paid to local bodies for rates on Crown lands £11,084, and £18,159 in respect ot receipts from deferred payment land. The actual receipts were £87,092, as against £130,100 estimated. The expenditure having beeu £120,909 and receipts £87,092 there was a deficiency of £34,227 for the year 1889-90. To this add the surplus of £27,703 with which we began the year. Finally the ordinary revenue received was £4,209,2-17, and the amount available to meet the expenditure was therefore £4,237,015, and the total expenditure hav ing been £4,121,511 there was a surplus of £115,074. This surplus includes primage duty amounting to £55,820. The balance for the year, after paying what was left unpaid of the deficit of £128,005. namely £78.005, is £2(5,609 with which to begin the current year, I feel sure the committee will not think this unsatisfactory, but hon. members will naturally ask what about the liabilities. The table which will be attached to this statement when published, gives full particulars of our standing liabilities at the end of each year since 1870. The committee wHI be glad to learn that the outstanding liabilities at the end of 1889-90 was less than the previous year by £15,180. There is a deficiency in the land fund this year of £24,227, which added to the deficiency on this account at the beginning of the year, amounts to a total of £47,71(5. With this debit balance, I do not propose to deal this year.

THE PUBLIC IJEIUT. On the 31st March, 1800, the gross estimated public debit amounted to £38,(507,950, and tho accrued Sinking Fund to i 11,303,412. It was, theref0re,£37,284,548. Of this sum there remains unexpended about £1)01,300. I'LBI.IC WORKS FUND. Since 1885-80 the Public Work's Fund has been divided into three parts. Parti c insists of the balance left of the loan existing prior to 31st March, 1880, supplement by one half of the loan of one million, authorised in 1888 for roads and purchase of native lands, telegraph extension, and harbour defences' Part 2 is the account of the million loan authorized in 1882 for tho North Island _ Main Trunk Railway, and part 3 is the account of the loan of £132,500, authorised in 1880 for the construction of certain railways, and supplemented by onehalf of the loan of 011 c million authorised iu 1888. On the 31.st March, 1889, the balance at the credit of this account was £303,801, in addition to which there was an asset of £87,974 under the Government Loans to Local Bodies Act, 1880, which, with the other items, brings the total np to £400,188. The expenditure during the year amounted to £107,530. Part 2: The unexpended balance of this, which is an account of the North Island Trunk Railway loan of £1,000,000, was £135,807 on the Ist of March, 18S9 ; the expenditure in 80-110 was £18,822, including £241,019 for purchase of native lands, leaving a balanco of £380,1)85 at the credit of tho account on 31st March last,subject to liabilities amounting to £9,(591. Part three: I began the year with a ciedit balance iu this account of £(508,078. The year's expenditure was £191,385, and we had in hand at the 31st March lust £42(5,806, with outstanding liabilities amounting to £150,929. A L'PIIOPRI A I'IONS. Honorable members will be pleased to observe that tho amount of the proposed appropriations for the current year is slightly less than the amount voted last year, the respective totals being £1,983,332 and £1,987,237, notwithstanding that the Kailway Commissioners require £18,000 more than they did last year, and that we propose an extra expenditure of £1,500 for school buildings, and £1,000 for an institution for deaf mutes. LAND FUND. The total estimated expenditure chargeable against the land fund is £11,057. This is less than provision made last year by over £1,109, and the reduction is caused through rates on Crown and Native Lands no longer payable oxcept in certain cases, the Act having expired 011 the 31st March last. ORDINARY REVENUE FOR THK YEAR 1890-91. This brings us to the question of ways and means for the year. Before I go into this, however, I wish to call the attention of tho committee to subjects about which there is much difficulty. I refer first to the quysfcioii of providing necessary

moans for school buildings and for lunatic asylum buildings, which havo hitherto been charged against che balance of the loan money originally set apart for the purpose. We do not see our way to charge the consolidated fund with the school buildings vote as a permanent thing. We think the whole matter stands in need of further consideration, and are of opinion it would be wise for the House to make extra provisi m for school buildings, mid also for lunatic asylum buildings, if possible to charge the school building against it if Parliament shall determino that it is a charge which ought permanently to be borne by the [ordinary revonue. The Government therefore propose to continue the primage duty tor another two years for the purpose of providing funds for school buildings and lunatic asylum buildings. I'IIOPEUTY-TAX. The Government has had under its careful consideration during the recess the question of the incidence of the Propertytax. The strong antagonism which seems to be felt against the tax in some districts of the colony would alone have demanded an exhaustive reconsideration of the subject. Such a consideration the Government have given the matter but I regret to say without seeing their way to reduc9, much less abandon the tax in the present state of our finances, our present necessities making it impossible for us to forego any appreciable part of the sum now raised ; that sum it must be rombered is estimated at no less than £300,500 for the present year and the practical impossibility of obtaining anything like that amount from property in anything like as equitable a tax. Great diversity of opinion among members of the present Parliament, as shown in the discussion upon the amendment of the Vat proposed by the Government, renders it unlikely that it can be satisfactorily dealt with during the | present session. The question of exchange in the form of our direct taxation must be left to another Parliament, but it was remembered that in one form or other substantially the sum I have named must be found. TAXATION. The Government would have been pleased if they could have seen their way to make any proposal to reduce taxation, but we are confident that it is impossible to make nnv further appreciable reduction in public expanditure, unless appealed to to largely curtail the public conveniences which are now enjoyed, and the absence of which would be felt as a hardship. Although we don't iind ourselves in a position to propose any reduction of taxation generally, the Government will make proposals with a view to give effect to the recommendations of the mining conference, as regards abolition of srold duty, and submit substitution of other revenue in its place. ESTIMATES. I estimate that the total ordinary revenue of the year will be £4,13)7,090: upon the oresent basis of taxation ; from the Customs I expect to obtain £1,480,000, from stamps, £012,000, and from Railways £1,080,000. The latter is the estimate of the Railway Commissioner?, and seems to bo probably under the amount that will be realised. LAND FUND. The estimated revenue of the Land Fund is £')(!,000, being slightly over the amount received last year. ESTIMATED KKSULTS OF THE YKAB 1890-91. I have said that the estimated total ordinary expenditure for the current year amounts to £4,127,417, and the estimated revenue to £4,159,000, to which I added the surplus of £30,009, with which I have shown we began the year, after paying off the balance of the deficit of £129,007. We shall therefore, if our estimates are realised, have a surplus of £05,052, subject, however, to a deduction of £20,000, to which I snail refer presently, leaving an estimated surplus of £48,082, which hon. membe.rs will agree, is not too large a margin to work upon, especially when it is remembered that supplementary estimates have yet to be provided for. SETTLEMENT OF THE CItOWN LAND. The question as to how the Crown lands of the colony aro to be successfully settled is one of the greatest, importance, but as hon. members will see from what 1 have already said the present financial provision made for this important object is not satisfactory. EUUCHASE OF NATIVE LANDS. If the settlement of the North Island is to be pushed forward provision must be made for considerable sums from time to time as opportunity offers for acquiring Native Lands. Authority has been granted by Parliament to temporarily apply a porti in of the loan for the North Island Main Trunk Railway to purchase native lands within prescribed railway area and about 759,431 acreas of land have already been acquired, and much larger areas are now under negotiations. The Government propose to ask for £125,000 more this year for this purpose from the same source.

THE STATE AND PROSPECT OF THE COLONY. 1 would now ask the attention of the committee for a short time, while I place before it some important facts in justification of an assertion which I made in the beginning of this Statement, that the colony was steadily progressing, and that our production in all branches of industry was rapidly increasing, and in some cases at an astonishing degree. I entered into this question somewhat fully in ISS2, and made shorter reference to it last year ; I propose to-night to go over a slightly shorter period than I examined in 1888, beginning in 1885, and in some cases in 1880. The importance of the subject cannot be overstated, and the ficts that I ain about to state ought to bo reiterated by every lover of New Zealand until they havo taken a real hold upon the public mind and become a part of the faith of tho people, in place of the false ideas which are now current to the non-progression jf the colony. But I will first say a word about an adverse fact that which has been unduly magnified to our great disadvantage. I refer to the loss to our popuplation two yeaisago by an exodus of emigrants over immigration, not that in auy year the total population was less at the end than at tie beginning, taking births and immigration on one side, and deaths a,nd emigration on the other, and tho formsr have always largely exceeded the latter ; but in the year 18S8 there was an excess of emigration over immigration of 9,175. I spoke of this at length in my statement last year, and showed what, in my opinion, was its real significance, and I should not have again referred to it but for tho exaggerated importance which has been attached to it, and the miserable lepresentations to which it has given rise. It has, in particular, been frequently represented that this loss has been going on indefinitely, but this is quite untrue. Taking the last three quinqaennial periods, from 1875 to 1889, in one year only ISBB did our loss by einmigration from New Zealand exceed our gain by immigration, and if we tako the quinquennial period in which that loss occurred, that is, the period from 1885 to 1889, our net loss by emigration amounts to 2410, this number, curiously enough, being composed of women and children but children mostly, in the proportion of 17 to 1; while in "bone and sinew," or adult males, as the term is used, in these re- , turns there was a net gain to us of 432. Considering the fact that during the last three financial years, 18S7-90, our own exi penditure. on public works was £1,040,309, [ while during the preceding three years, 1884-87, it was £3,477,500 and that in neighbouring coloines there was and still is very large public expenditure going on, the surprise is not that we should have lost what we did lose but that we should not have lost more. We want men and women of tho Old Country and elsewhere, looking for a new home for themselves, and children after them, to know truly what this country is, that I firmly believe it would draw them here, and then we want to put thorn on the land. We may bo certain there will always bo a considerable outflow of population from this as from each other colony, and this will be increased under a monetary depression. STATISTICS. Now let us see what statistics will show us. I have had a table prepared by tho Registrar General for agricultural statistics, showing the agricultural holding of one acre and over in extent,for the last 15 years beginning in February, 1870. It will be published with the statement, and a study of it will, I am sure, reassure any persons who have doubts as to our very substantial and remarkably steady progress. ACUI] CULTURE. Our agricultural production shows a steady advance with only such fluctuations as can be accounted for. MANUFACTURES. Turning to our manufactures for the last live years, wo find that in 1885 the total value of our manufactures exported was £104,233, excluding fibre and including flax £120,539. By what may bo called steady advances year by yoar we find that they have risen in ISB9 to £208,(598. In other words, our exported manufactures excluding flax had moro than doubled themselves. In 1889 the total oxports were£9,2o4,2oßamounting to £55 Ss Gd

per head of male adults and exclusive of wool and (fold £4,280,144 or £2G (is Id per head of malo adults. This, it will be admitted, shows most satisfactory progress, and a'large part of this progress is no doubt fairly attributed to the Public Works policy and so enabling us to profitably increase our surplus products for expoit. I say " surplus " for wlrit we s"iid away and what is left after deducting substantial mid well-earned share for our needs. Hon. meii'ilun will find a table showing from the year 1 .SSI inclusive, a steady growth in the number of Htiull flock-owners and it will he seen, that notwithstanding ravages of rabbits, the large Hocks-owners, that is those owning over2o,ooo sheep, have incronsed from 139 to 152. The frozen meat trade has as-mined large proportions, and is now a sfeidyand important industry of the country. It has grown in value from £1'J,339 iu 1882 to £784,47-1 in 188!). [We had not received the concluding portion of the Statement when going to press. I