D.—No. 2

with the Harbor. According to the distribution of the Loan Act, £50,000 is allotted to the City. Out of this the Board has received £11,000 for various purposes, and £7000 has been laid aside for the building of a market-house. Also £12,500 has been diverted, by Act of the Provincial Council, to the purchase of the Supreme Court House site. It was from the first intended to devote £15,000 out of the said £50,000 to the taking up a like amount of debentures charged and secured upon the City Endowments by the Debenture Act of 1859. These sums together amount to £45,000, leaving £4500 still due to the City Board. There is also a sum of say, in round numbers, £2500 accumulated by way of sinking fund for taking up the City Debentures. This, however, will not for the present be carried to the credit of the City Board, as it will probably have to be paid into the Supreme Court, for the same reason that £30,000 had to be paid in to cover £25,000 on account of the harbor. I very strongly advocate the taking up of these debentures at an early date. They are not yet payable, but means can be found for relieving the City endowments as those of the Harbor have already been relieved, by payment of the money into the Supreme Court. This will require an Act of the Assembly to alter the security. The City will then recover control of the endowment property, and will, I presume, be able to borrow upon that security to a much larger extent than £15,000. We now come to the Loan Account, in which I believe much more interest is taken than in the Ordinary Revenue, which supplies material for the regular estimates. This interest may^arise^ from the difficulty of understanding it. There is a strange complication of Empowering Acts, some repealed and some in force, together with diversions of money from the purposes to which it was devoted by the original Loan Act. The Council is aware that although the loan is for £500,000, the Government can only draw at the rate of £100,000 a year. The gross expenditure on account of the Loan up to the 31st January, 1865, is £172,317. From this, for all practical purposes, £50,000 for the purchase of the Government House and Supreme Court sites may be deducted, an arrangement having been made under which payment is deferred. I have brought down a general statement of the Loan Account, which I will read to the Council:—

27

AND LOCATION OP IMMIGRANTS.

State of the Loan, 31st January, 186. General Distribution by Auckland Loan Act, 1863. Empowering and Loan Acts, 1863. Session 15, No. 20. Empowering Act Amendment Act, 1863. Session 16, No. 3. Redemption of Provincial Debentures . . . £45,000 Public Buildings . . 70,000 Immi gration and Purchase of Native Land. . 200,000 Lunatic Asylum . . £10,000 Stockade Improvement 2,000 Foundation of Custom House . . . 2,000 Post Office, Supreme Court House, Provincial and General Government Offices . . 30,000 Purchase of Native Land 10,000 Immigration . . 20,000 Surveys . . . 4,500 Harbor Trust . . 30,000 Manukau Harbor . 1,000 City of Auckland . 10,000 South and Onehunga Roads 6,000 Erection of Government House . . . £25,000 Erection of Post Office 5,000 And repealing the 4th item in the preceding column. Harbor Trust . . 60,000 City of Auckland . . 50,000 Public Works . . 75,000 All these Acts are repealed o: The Acts and the expenditure whi altered. I make mention o: ih immediately concern us ar thei i as that we may keep clear of them. (Hows : — Empowering and Loan Acts, and Eailway Commissioners Act, 1864. Session 16. Empowering and Loan Acts, 1864. Session 17. Expended to 31st January, 1865. Empowering Act repeals both previous Empowering Acts, and provides for— Luuatic Asylum . . £14,000 Improvement of Stockade 2,494 Government House . 25,000 Post Office . . . 10,000 Custom House . . 10,000 Lock-up . . . 3,000 Immigration. . . 44,232 Surveys . . . 2,752 Harbor Trust . . 30,000 Manukau Harbor . . 2,000 Native Land Purchase . . . £15,000 Supreme Court Site 25,000 Harbor Trust . 30,000 Water Works . 44,500 Immigration . . £21,141 New Lock-up. . 3,000 Lunatic Asylum . 5,938 Stockade . . 2,835 Surveys . . . 4,500 Eailway . . . 15,922 Native Land Purchase 5,773 Government House 25,000 Supreme Court House Site . . . 25,000 109 -[09 Harbor Trust . . 34,341 Manukau Harbor . 576 Great South Eoad . 15,000 City of Auckland . 11,000 Tamaki Bridge . 2,291 Bailway Commissioners Act .... 100,000 City Board Loan Act . 20,000 South Eoad . . . 15,000 Tamaki Bridge . . 15,000 63,208 £172,317