The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY. OCT. 18, 1890G.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2850, 18 October 1890, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY. OCT. 18, 1890 G.

A frightful mystery is made of the finance of the colony, and yet the position can be readily understood by any person of ordinary intelligence devoting a little attention to its general features. In the absence of such attention the wildest statements pass current;, and the most impossible amount of retrenchment is proposed. This can only do harm liy distracting attention from real evils, and by dissipating the energy that could be otherwise usefully applied. We have now before us the official statement of the actual appropriations for the year ending 31st March next and shall endeavour to state them simply for our readers' information. It will be seen that those who talk of retrenching by hundreds of thousands, talk very wildly. But it will also be seen that considerable reductions must be made and that although the colony has been allowed to drift into a very unsatisfactory position, there is nothing to justify the panic and injurious croaking in which some of our contemporaries are proud, just now, to indulge. We shall leave the Land Fund account out of the question. The charges against it for survey and fixed purposes are £115,680, and as the rents for depasturing go to the ordinary revenue, the Land Fund will do well if it cover these charges. The surplus, if any, cannot be worth taking into account and, as a matter of fact, the result has been a deficit on that head for some few years past.

The expenditure for the year against ordinary revenue (which includes railway receipts) is to be £4,125,502, a very pretty sum for so young a country and a population under 050,000. But from it must be first deducted the following fixed charges, settled by Act of Parliament and not subject to annual appropriation. They are :— Civil List, ((inventor, Judges, and Ministry) £20,300 Interest ami Sinking Fund ... 1,57i"i,(i22 Subsidies tn Local Bodies, Pensions, Legislature etc. 242,101 £2,144,083 This disposes of a pretty good sum in which no immediate saving of any appreciable extent ia possible, though it is held by many that effective decentralisation and consequent reconstruction would enable considerable reductions to be made in the Legislative, Ministerial and similar expenses. However, we must take things as they are for the present and deal with the balance of £1,981,410, representing the rest of the ordinary expenditure for the year. Here are a few of the big items included in that sum :— Postal and Telegraph Department £203,812 Winking Railways 081,4517 Education 373,704 Justice Department 110,(i!)7 Lunacy und Charitable Department 42,415 Stamps and Deeds Department 21,313 £1,499,408 These absorb no less than one and a half millions and, excepting perhaps Education, are said to be already so cut down that there is no prospect of appreciable reduction. The Education vote has been often attacked, but reduction is opposed as being calculated to impair the efficiency of the system. Wβ now turn to the balance which, after these reductions, is less than half a million altogether. The actual sums are :— Legislative Department ... £14,805 Colonial Secretary's Department 73,720 Colonial Treasurer's Department 21,780 Customs and Marine Department 7G.19G Native Affairs Department 22,213 Mines and Lands Department 40,587 PublicßuildiogH and Domains (including School Buildiiipe) 07,015 Defence Department 159,015 £481,021

It is over these departments that the battle raged last session, and has raged for sessions before. The salaries paid are, with few exceptions, admittedly small—smaller in fact than those of the other colonies in general. The prizes in our public service are certainly few, and grow fewer year by year in face of reductions continually made. The most sanguine economists do not now look for any large savings from the Civil Service Act and classification which we are to have next seseion.

The expenditure is far too heavy, but unfortunately the heaviest part is the interest on the debt so wildly incurred. The money thus obtained was spent for purposes that should have been defrayed from revenue or, failing that, have been deferred. Therein lies the root of our trouble, but tjie resources of the colony are so great and the industry of the people is giving thjMii so rapid a development that we can safely trust to time and prudent management to see us right in this respect. Meanwhile we may growl and derive from it what satisfaction we can, but let us also be thankful for the wonderful increase in our exports, which shows what can be done, and offen a sure hope that our difficulties, after all, will be but short lived. As to reduction in the expenditure, a sound public policy will dictate the utmost vigilance in always keeping the cost of Government at the lowest practicable poiut whether the times be prosperous or otherwise. The contrary policy has been most injurious to us in the past. Much nonsense is talked about cutting our coat according to our cloth and suiting our expenditure to the times. Maxims of this kind are right enough in private finance, but with public finance there is but one safe or recognised plan. That plan is to keep expenditure down, at all times, to the lowest reasonable

figure, and to place as few burdens as possible on the people, whether they be prosperous or no. For our own part we have a strong belief that the country could be, and ought to be, more cheaply governed. But the failures to attain this end with everything centred in Wellington have been so numerous that increasing attention must be paid to thoso who hold that the surest way, and the only certain one, to a reduction in the burdens of the country is a decentralisation of the most complete character. The division of labour that would result gives the surest hope of success. The local governing bodies and the General Government would do their own work respectively, and the field of each be brought within manageable dimensions. At the worst if the local bodies were careless or extravagant, or in any way went wrong, they would soon come to the end of their tether. Under no circumstances could they place the colony in serious difficulty. With the General Government controlling all and responsible for all, there is no such security so long as the colony has a credit upon which money can, on any terms, be raised.