B.—No. 3.

MEMORANDUM IN EXPLANATION OF THE ANNEXED RETURNS. The annexed Returns have been prepared from the Reports of the Provincial Auditors, so far as relates to the money that passes through the Provincial Accounts. The amounts of interest and sinking fund paid by the General Government, and deducted from payments to Provinces, in terms of the 44th section of " The Public Revenues Act, 1867," have been added to both sides of the account, and also any sums that may have been charged to the " Separate Account" of the Provinces, and afterwards transferred to the Consolidated Fund Account. The Returns therefore show (as far as practicable) all the revenue that has been received by or credited to each Province, and all charges made upon that revenue. The expenditure of the Provinces of "Wellington and Hawke's Bay is not correct as between those Provinces, their respective portions of the permanent debts of the original Province not having been fixed. An adjustment will also have to be made between the Provinces of Nelson and Marlborough, as their respective proportions of the interest and sinking fund on the Loan of 1856 cannot be ascertained until after the close of the financial year of the Colony. J. WOODWAED, Treasury, May 23, 1870. Assistant Treasurer.