8.—19.

No. Iβ. The Hon. the Colonial Treasurer. Audit Office, 3rd April, 1902. The Governor having determined, under section 9 of " The Public Revenues Acts Amendment Act, 1900," that item 25 of Vote 48, " Remission of duty on estates of deceased members of contingents, £100," in the appropriations for the year ending the 31st March, 1902, applies to the refund proposed to be made of the sum of £566 18s. 3d. paid for duty on the estate in question, and that consequently remission of such sum may be made as a charge to Vote 48 notwithstanding that the amount of the said item is thereby exceeded, the Controller and Auditor-General has passed the relative voucher, and will in ordinary course lay before Parliament, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Revenues Act, a copy of the correspondence on the subject. The item on the estimates was intended to provide for remission, by payment out of the Consolidated Fund, of stamp duty which was required by statute to be paid out of particular estates—that is, for remission to private persons of revenue legally payable by them which there is no statutory authority to remit, except as a charge to the Unauthorised Expenditure Account of money expended in excess of the appropriation of Parliament; and such an item is obviously not an appropriation for the service of a Department. Passing over the question whether an appropriation for remission of duty would apply to the present claim, " to refund duty paid on the above estate," the item for remission of duty was either specific or not specific. If it was specific, it authorised no more than its amount of expenditure for the remission. If it was not specific, it authorised no remission whatever of revenue required by statute to be paid by private persons or estates. For if an item to relieve classes of persons or estates from liability to pay duty is quite general in terms, and has no specific reference to any particular case, the provision of the statute that such persons or estates shall be liable is paramount, except in a case under section 3 of the Public Revenues Amendment Act of 1900, where the payments must in no case exceed the amount of the item. Such was accordingly the judgment of the Audit Office, and such, consequently, the law ; and in none of the Audit Office minutes on the question is there anything that can reasonably be read even as implying a suggestion that the question, whether the item is specific, must be determined by its amount. The remark that the Solicitor-General's " opinion, indeed, is understood by the Audit Office to lead to the conclusion that it would be sufficient for an item to be passed on the estimates of £1 for any class of revenue to justify the Administration in refunding such revenue to the amount of the available balance of the vote and the appropriation for unauthorised expenditure " was a remark made by the Controller and Auditor-General by way of submitting that the opinion which led to such a conclusion was open to conclusive objection. J. K. Waeburton, Controller and Auditor-General.

No. 17. The Solicitor-General. Premier's Office, Wellington, 7th April, 1902. The further remarks of the Audit Office, dated the 3rd instant, are submitted for any comment you may care to make. I think these memoranda, after the Governor's Warrant has been obtained, are very objectionable, inasmuch as such correspondence might be continued indefinitely, and altogether new arguments and matter introduced. In the cases of difference of opinion between the Audit Office and the Treasury the opinion of the Solicitor-General is obtained, and such opinion is forwarded to the Audit Office for their information. If the Audit Office does not accept such opinion, they should at this stage exhaust all the objections they may have to the course which the Solicitor-General advises the Government may be pursued in the matter, and the correspondence should close with the determination of the Governor, leaving merely to the Audit Office the task of transmitting a copy of the papers to be laid before Parliament. It will probably be necessary to amend the Public Revenues Act in this direction. R. J. Sbddon.

No. 18. The Right Hon. the Colonial Treasurer. I have no comment to make, except to say that I do not take the Audit Office to now hold that the case is governed by section 3of " The Public Revenues Acts Amendment Act, 1900." In its minute of the 21st February it indicated its view that the section referred to did not apply, and, I think, rightly so, for it is confined to items which are in con flict with some statutory limitation or prohibition of payment. Fred. Fitohett, Solicitor-General. 6/4/1902.

No. 19. Fob the Audit Office.—Jab. B. Hiywood.—9th April, 1902.

No. 20. The Hon. the Colonial Treasurer. Audit Office, 10th April, 1902. In acknowledging the receipt of and returning these papers, the Controller and Auditor-General begs leave respectfully to point out that the suggestion of the Minister, in his memorandum to the Solicitor-General of the 7th instant hardly applies to the present case. The Minister referred for the remarks which the Solicitor-General made in his minute of the 18th March the memorandum of the 12th March which was addressed to the Minister by the Audit Office in connection with its judgment on the question; but those remarks by the Solicitor-General, though they appear to the Audit Office to cast reflection on it, and may reasonably be deemed to have influenced the Treasury, were not forwarded to the Audit Office till after the Government had advised the issue of and obtained the Governor's Warrant. It is submitted that, in these circumstances, the Controller and Auditor-General could not well have passed over the remarks in silence, except at the risk of being misapprehended to imply acquiescence. In every such case, however, the Audit Office concern is only that the expenditure may be charged in accordance with law; and the purpose of the Audit Office memoranda is, as the Controller and Auditor-General would assure the Minister, only to afford assistance to a clear conception of the law, J. K. Warbubton, Controller and Auditor-General,

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