PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE APPORTIONMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT OF THE PROVINCES OF WELLINGTON AND HAWKE'S BAY.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1861 Session I, B-08

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PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE APPORTIONMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT OF THE PROVINCES OF WELLINGTON AND HAWKE'S BAY.

PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BY COMMAND OF HIS EXCELLENCY, SEPTEMBER 11th, 1860. ORDERED TO BE PRINTED JULY 4th, 1861.

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No. 1. COLONIAL TREASURER TO SUPERINTENDENT OP WELLINGTON. Nelson, 4th December, 1858. Sir,— In order that the General Government may be enabled to act upon the provisions of the 15th section of " The New Provinces Act, 1858," under which the annual charge of the Public Debt of the former Province of Wellington will be apportioned between the Provinces into which that Province is now divided, I have the honor to request that you will furnish me, at your earliest convenience, with full particulars of the state of that Debt at the time of the establishment of the Province of Hawke's Bay, viz., Ist November last, specifying the amount raised, with the legal authority for the raising of the same, the dates at which the several portions of such amount were received into the Provincial Treasury or placed to its credit, the rate of interest and the terms relating to the continuance of the loan; and giving all such other information as in your Honor's judgment may appear requisite for satisfying the General Government as to the amount and nature of the Debt. I have also to request that you will inform me in what manner the Loan has been appropriated; what was the balance of the Loan in hand on the Ist November last; and what is, as nearly as can now be estimated, the amount of the liabilities chargeable against the balance. The statements contained in all documents referred to as evidencing the state of the LoanAccount should be certified by your Honor as true to the best of your Honor's knowledge and belief. I have, &c, C. W. RICHMOND. His Honor the Superintendent, . Wellington.

(No. 514.)

No. 2.

COLONIAL SECRETARY TO SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 29th April, 1859. Sir, — I have the honor to draw your attention to Mr. Kiclimond's letter, dated the 4th December last, from Nelson, on the subject of the Public Debt of the former Province of Wellington ; and as no reply has been received thereto, I herewith enclose a copy of the letter in question, and have to request that your Honor will be good enough to furnish the information applied for. I have, &c, Fred. Whitakeh, For the Colonial Secretary. His Honor the Superintendent, Wellington.

(No. 205.)

No. 3. SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON TO COLONIAL SECRETARY. Superintendent's Office, Wellington, 4th June, 1859. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th April, drawing my attention to the Colonial Treasurer's previous one of the 4th December last, in which he requests me to furnish him with certain information respecting the Finances of this Province, in order that the General Government may be enabled to act upon the provisions of the 15th section

(No. 128.)

PAPERS RELATIVE TO APPORTIONMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT BETWEEN THE PROVINCES OF WELLINGTON AND HAWKE'S BAT.

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APPORTIONMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT

of the New Provinces Act, under which the annual charge of the Public Debt of the former Province of Wellington will be apportioned between the two Provinces into which that Provin.ce is now divided. I have delayed answering Mr. Richmond's letter, in the belief that when the decision of the Imperial Government on the New Provinces Act was known, a reply would be unnecessary, and as I learn by the last mail that the Act is still under the consideration of Her Majesty's Government, and that they had been placed in full possession of the means by which that Act was passed, viz., His Excellency the Governor having first disfranchised the Province of Wellington, in the House of Representatives, and of his Advisers having then availed themselves of the enforced absence of the Wellington Representatives to introduce and pass the Bill, which but for his Excellency's disfranchisement of this Province would probably not have been introduced, and certainly could not have been passed, I think you will concur in my opinion that it is unnecessary to go into the financial question referred to in Mr. Richmond's letter, till Her Majesty's decision on the Act is known. I have, &c, I. E. Featherston, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Superintendent. Auckland.

No. 4. COLONIAL SECRETARY TO SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 25th October, 1859. Sir, — As it will be the duty of the General Government to propose to the General Assembly at its next session the apportionment of the capital of the Provincial Debt of the Province of Wellington between the present Province of Wellington and the Province of Hawke's Bay, I have the honor to invite you to favour the Government with a statement of the principles upon which, in your Honor's opinion, an equitable apportionment ought to be based, accompanied with any information which it is in your Honor's power to furnish, and any observations which you may desire to make upon the subject of the apportionment. I have, &c, Hbnry John Tancred, For the Colonial Secretary. His Honor the Superintendent, Wellington.

(No. 484.)

No, 5. COLONIAL SECRETARY TO SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, October 2oth, 1859. Sik, — On the 4th December, 1858, the Honorable the Colonial Treasurer, in a letter addressed from Nelson requested your Honor to furnish certain information to enable the General Government to act on the 15th section of " The New Provinces Act, 1858," under which the annual charge of the Public Debt of the former Province of Wellington will be apportioned between the two Provinces into which that Province is now divided. On the 29th April last, I drew your Honor's attention to the circumstance that no reply had been received to that letter, and on the 4th of June you informed me that in your opinion it was unnecessary to go into the financial question referred to till after Her Majesty's decision on " The New Provinces Act, 1858," was known. That decision wag notified in the New Zealand Gazette of the 18th July last, but as yet I have received from your Honor no information which would enable the apportionment of the annual charge of the Public Debt in question to be made, and thus relieve the Province of Wellington from a proportion of the burden, the whole of which, in the absence of that information, it is at present compelled to bear. As the result is that the Provincial Chest at Wellington is deprived of funds which should properly belong to it, I have to request that your Honor will be pleased to furnish the required information without unnecessary delay. I have, &c, Henry John Tancred, For the Colonial Secretary. His Honor the Superintendent, Wellington.

(No. 489.)

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No. 6. SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON TO COLONIAL SECRETARY. Superintendent's Office, Wellington, 12th December, 1859. Sir, — Referring to the letters of the numbers and dates specified in the margin, I have the honor to transmit to you copies of the several Loan Acts and other documents, from which, together with the published Abstracts of the Receipts and Expenditure, the Colonial Treasurer will, I apprehend, have little difficulty in obtaining the information respecting the public debts of this Province required in his letter of the 4th December, 1858. By the Loan Act, Sess. 1., No. 6, the sum of £50,000 was authorised to be raised, to bear interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum —no period fixed for its repayment. By a subsequent Act, Session 11., No. 9, the maximum rate of interest on the above Loan was fixed at eight per cent. Some few thousands of this Loan were raised in 1854-5; the balance was taken by Messrs. Gladstone & Co. in 1856, and was from December in that year at the disposal of the Province. By the Loan Act, Sess. IV., No. 4, a further Loan of £50,000 was authorised, redeemable at a period of ten years, and bearing eight per cent, interest. This loan, the negotiation of which was accepted by the Union Bank in July, 1856, was at once placed to the credit of the Provincial Government. By the Act, Sess. IV., No. 9, an additional sum of £25,000 was authorized to be raised on the same terms as the second loan of £50,000. Its negotiation was undertaken by the Union Bank of Australia, and the whole amount (£25,000) was also at once placed to the credit of the Province, and remained to its credit up to the 20th October, 1857, when, in consequence of the Governor's disallowance of the Act, the Bank suspended the sale of the Bonds. In addition to this Loan, a sum of about £3,600 has been borrowed under the Savings Bank Act, Sess. 111., No. 7. The Bonds issued to the Savings Bank bear six per cent, interest, and are redeemable on seven day's notice. With regard to the appropriation of the Loan. By the Act, Sess. 1., No. 6, the £50,000 was appropriated to certain works and undertakings specified in the Schedule, but by a subsequent Act, Sess. 3, No. 12, a sum of £13,000 (of the above £50,000) appropriated to the extinction of the Native title, was re-appropriated to other purposes. The second Loan of £50,000 "was to be applied in the construction of Public Works, and " carrying on undertakings of the Province, according to the annual appropriation of the Provincial " Council," and was so appropriated in the Appropriation Act, Sess. IV., No. 10. The last Loan of £25,000 was appropriated to certain purposes named in the Act. In the copies of the Loan Acts herewith transmitted, I have given the amounts expended oil the several works and undertakings, specified in the said Acts up to the 31st December 1858, from which it will he seen that there had been expended on The Wellington—Wairarapa Road £28,833 Ngahuranga 8,884 Wairapara—Ahuriri 14,955 Wellington—Wanganui 20,026 Immigration 35,924 Principal Government Offices 9,156 Surveys from Ist July 1856 to 31st December 1858 14,105 Road Department and Contingencies 6,490 Light House 5,754 £144,127 Existing Contracts and Liabilities on Ist November 1858, for Works specified in Loan Acts. Waiohine Bridge (paid in 1859) £ 2,499 Wanganui (£lOOO paid in 1859) 5,000 Steam with Melbourne (paid in 1859) , 2,572 Immigration (£3,910 paid in 1859) about „ 10,000 The Contracts and Liabilities in November 1858, on account of Works not specified in Loan Acts amounted to about £8000. I have, &c., I. E. Featherston, Superintendent.

(No. 276.) Colonial Treasurer, Nelson, 4th Dec, 1858. Colonial Secretary, 205— 29th April, 1859, 484-25 th Oct., 1859.

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No. 7. COLONIAL SECRETARY TO SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 6th March, 1860. Sir, — Referring to your Honor's letter No. 276 of the 12th December last, furnishing certain information with respect to the Provincial Debts of the late Province of Wellington, I have the honor to enclose a copy of a Memorandum, of the 28th ultimo, from the Honorable the Colonial Treasurer on this subject, and to state that the Government will submit to the General Assembly the question, both as to Principal and Interest, of the adjustment of the Public Debts between the present Province of Wellington and that of Hawke's Bay. I have, &c, E. W. Stafford. His Honor the Superintendent, Wellington.

(No. 134.)

Enclosure in No. 7. memorandum for the colonial secretary. Treasury, Auckland, 28th February, 1860. With reference to the letter of the Superintendent of Wellington, dated 12th December, 1859, furnishing, in reply to my letter of the 4th December, 1858, copies of documents relative to the amount of the Public Debt of the Province of Wellington; I have to state that after examining those documents and the published Quarterly Abstracts of the Provincial Receipts and Expenditure to which I am referred by the Superintendent, I am unable to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion respecting the amount of the Public Debt of the Province of Wellington at the date of the seperation of the Province of Hawke's Bay. From the Quarterly Abstracts of the Provincial Accounts it would appear that the actual amount of debt on the 31st December, 1858, (the separation having taken effect on the Ist November in the same year) was £76,128 13s. lid., deduction being made of old Debentures paid off out of the Loans of Messrs. Gladstone and the Union Bank of Australia. From the Superintendent's letter I infer that His Honor is of opinion that for the purposes of the New Provinces Act, the debt is to be taken as amounting at the date of separation to the sum of £100,000 at the least; or if the disallowed Loan of £25,000, and the Savings Bank Loan be included (which His Honor seems to claim) to the sum of £128,000. Under these circumstances, and consideiing also that several large claims against the Province of Wellington remain in suspense, awaiting the general financial adjustment to be effected between the Provinces of Wellington and Hawke's Bay, which must'take place at the approaching Session of the General Assembly, I see no other course open to ,the General Government than to leave the apportionment of the interest in the Wellington debt.to stand over also. I recommend that the Superintendents of Wellington and Hawke's Bay, should be communicated with to the above effect, and that a copy of the letter of the Superintendent of Wellington should be forwarded to the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay. C. W. Richmond.

(No. 18.)

No. 8. colonial secretary to superintendent of hawke's bay. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 6th March, 1860. Sir, — I enclose for your Honor's information copies of the correspondence noted in the margin, relative to the Provincial Debts of the Province of Wellington, at the time of the separation of the Province of Hawke's Bay, from which your Honor will observe that the question, both as to Principal and Interest, of the adjustment of those Debts between the two Provinces concerned, will be submitted to the General Assembly. I have, &c, E. W. Stafford, His Honor the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, Napier.

(No. 133.) Superintendent of Wellington to the Colonial Secretary, I2th Dec, 1859 Colonial Secretary to Superintendent of Wellington, 6th March, 1860.

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No. 9. SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON TO COLONIAL SECRETARY. Superintendent's Office, Wellington, Ist June, 1860. Sir, — I have the honor to request that His Excellency's Government will take steps to cause the Government of Hawke's Bay to pay its share of the Interest upon the debt of this Province as originally constituted. The whole of the interest upon the debt of One hundred thousand pounds, from the Ist of November, 1858, to the first of July, 1860, amounting in round numbers to £13,333, has been paid by this Province, and a further sum of about £4,000, will have to be remitted to England in the course of three or four months, for the payment of the dividend due on the Ist of January, 1861. According to the rule of apportionment laid down in the 15th Clause of the New Provinces Act, rather more than half of £13,333 the amount already paid by this Province, should be borne by the Province of Hawke's Bay, though owing to the Financial year being made by the New Provinces Act to commence on the first of July, it is impossible to state the exact sum. I refrained from pressing this matter sooner on your attention, in the expectation that the General Assembly would have met in February or March, but as its meeting is indefinitely postponed, I trust that His Excellency's Government will recognise the justice of not only enforcing the immediate payment of the amount already due to this Province, but also of requiring the Hawke's Bay Government to provide its share of the interest in sufficient time to enable its being remitted to England, for payment of the Dividends there as they fall due. I have, &c, I. E. Featherston, The Honorable the Colonial Secretary, Superintendent. Auckland.

No. 10. COLONIAL SECRETARY TO SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON. Colonial Secretary*! Office, Auckland, 9th June, 1860. Sir, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Honor's letter of the Ist instant, requesting that the Government would take steps to cause the Government of the Province of Hawke's Bay to pay its share of the Interest upon the Debt of the Province of Wellington as originally constituted. It has already been intimated to your Honor that the Government has been unable from the materials hitherto furnished by you, to do more than obtain an approximation to the amount of the Provincial Debt of the original Province at the date of the separation, and that, with a view to leaving to the House of Representatives the decision of all the financial questions arising out of the separation of the Provinces of Wellington and Hawke's Bay, the Government has refrained from pressing against the Provincial Government of Wellington, demands which now amount to upwards of Three thousand five hundred pounds (£3,500.) As however under the provisions of the "New Provinces Act, 1858," a considerable sum for interest will certainly be due on the 30th instant, from the Province of Hawke's Bay, instructions have been sent to the Sub-Treasurer at Wellington, to pay to the Provincial Treasurer the stun of Two thousand five hundred pounds on account of the Province of Hawke's Bay. I have, &c, His Honor the Superintendent, E. W. Stafford. Wellington.

(No. 264.)

No. 11. COLONIAL SECRETARY TO SUPERINTENDENT OF HAWKE'S BAY. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 9th June, 1860. Sir, — I have the honor to enclose for your information copies of the correspondence noted in the margin, on the subject of the share of the Province of Hawke's Bay, of the interest upon the debt of the original Province of Wellington. I have, &c, E. W. Stafford. His Honor the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, NapiA-.

(No. 265.) Superintendent of Wel« lington to Colonial Secretary, Ist June, 1860, Colonial Secretary to Superintendent of Wellington, 9th June, 1860.

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PAPERS RELATIVE TO APPORTIONMENT OF DEBT, &c.

No. 12. SUPERINTENDENT OF HAWKE'S BAY TO COLONIAL SECRETARY. Superintendent's Office, Napier, June 25th, 1860. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 9th instant, relative to the interest of the debt of the original Province of Wellington, and from which I learn that the sum of Two thousand five hundred pounds as mentioned in your letter of the 9th instant, to the Superintendent of Wellington, will have been paid by your Sub-Treasurer on account of this Province, to the Province of Wellington. In reply I beg to thank you for the steps you have taken, as no doubt can exist as to our present liability under the "New Provinces Act," for a portion of the interest of the debt before referred to. Although I sincerely hope that at the meeting of the General Assembly next month, matters will be so arranged that we shall in future no longer be called on to share any responsibility for debts which it is notorious were contracted against our will, and from which the inhabitants of Hawke's Bay received no benefit whatever. I have, &c, T. H. Fitzgerald, Superintendent. The Honorable the Colonial Secretary, Auckland.

No. 13. SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON TO COLONIAL SECRETARY. Superintendent's Office, Wellington, 26th June, 1860. Sir, —■ I do myself the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter numbered and dated as in the margin, I have, &c, I. E. Featherston, Superintendent. The Honorable the Colonial Secretary, Auckland.

(tSTo. 135.) 264—3 th June.