B.—2a.

1876. NEW ZEALAND.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT, (In Committee of Supply, October 9, 1876.) BY THE COLONIAL TREASURER, THE HONORABLE MAJOR ATKINSON.

Mr O'Rorke, — I desire, with the permission of the Committee, to take this opportunity of stating briefly the financial position of the colony, and of submitting, for the consideration of the Committee, the proposals of the Government for the current financial year. The Financial Statement of my honorable friend the late Colonial Treasurer, and the tables accompanying that Statement, give such full information as to the position of the Public Accounts that I shall not have to trouble the Committee with much detail upon the present occasion; my object being to give a short and comprehensive statement of our financial proposals. I will first consider the position of our Loans and Public Works Account, and then of our Revenue and Expenditure. LOANS. PUBLIC WORKS ACCOUNT. Honorable members are aware that by last year's legislation the unexpended balances of the Immigration and Public Works Loan and General Purposes Loan were combined in one account, called the Public Works Account. In Table G to the Financial Statement of last year, honorable members will find that the balance to credit of the Immigration and Public Works Loan was £2,187,088 lis. Bd., and to the General Purposes Loan £67,062 Bs. 4d., which together make an available total of £2,254,151 with which we began the year 1875-76. The transactions for the year are set forth in the Table B(l) attached to the Pinancial Statement of Sir Julius Vogel, which shows as the result a balance of £136,605 ss. 9d. at credit of the account. I accordingly begin my