FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 109, 3 August 1877, Page 3

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The Hon. Major. Atkinson made his Financial Statement on the evening of the 31st July. ' In regard to "Loans," he described what 'had been done last session, which authorised the raising of £1,000.000 for defined purposes. His. belief that the money could be raised in the colony, doing away with the necessity for-, going upon the London market had been realised. | Nego : tiations had been made with the Bank of New South Wales, Sydney, for an advance of balf-a-million, secured upon shortdated debentures, bearing five per cent, interest, and one and a-half commission, payable half-yearly in Wellington,. the principal being repayable in London.in three equal instalments at intervals of one month, the first instalment falling due on December Ist, 1878. From the Bank of New Zealand they had obtained £500,000 ; secured upon short-dated debentures, bearing five per cent, interest, payable halfyearly in Wellington, principal repayable in London upon February 25, 1879. Arrangements had also been made for a total' advance of £500.000,,, repayment fixed at February 15, 1879. The appropriations last session foi im-' migration and public works amounted' to £2,032,286. Up to June 30, £1,480,617 had been expended, making a saving of £551,688 for the year on amount voted. The votes on which the largest savings had been made were for railway?, water supply on gold-fields, land purchase, North Island, and roads. It was proposed to ask for appropriations amounting to about £1,274,676, with additional ways and means, if granted, amounting-to £990,443 for the present year. - Re "Provincial Liabilities," £110,000 had been iss-ued under the Appropriation Act for advances to Auckland, Wellington and Westland. Amounts paid to officers for compensation was included in those liabilities, and the sum so expended the House would be asked to cover by a vote. With regard to the "Public Debt," the gross amount of that debt was £20,895,311 The total revenue last year was £3,061,594 10s. 4d. The net public'debt is eight and a-half times our revenue, or,'including income r from land sales, six times our revenue. ~t* Tlnr pTOfttiytYrmrtrrer rarl w.uy.y 'trad "been £87,924 during the year. The actual expenditure of last year, including liabilities, was £2,024.572 ; the actual revenue, including realisable assets, £2,172,792, leaving n balance of £248,220 as a surplus? which to begin the year 1877-8. The Customs revenue showed a deficiency of £40,621. The Postal revenue appeared to have fallen below the' Estimate, but sums to be. received from the Imperial and Australian Government's would convert the seeming deficiency into excess of more than £6,000. The business done by the Pott-office Saving's Banks,, and the Annuity and Insurance Departments was satisfactory. The proposed total expenditure for the year 1877-8 was £3,109.754. Departmental maintenance had been reduced. Under the head of Public Departments. £30,000 was included for hospital and charitable aid. Authority would be to deduct from the subsidies to Counties, Boroughs, and Road Boards, a sufficient sum to maintain hospitals and charitable aid in districts which decline to adopt the Act, or in which it proved insufficient. | The amount for Militia and Volunteers had to be increased, but a saving had been effected through the amalgamation of police and armed constabulary. As regarded " Ways and Means," the Colonial Treasurer said, if all the charges placed on the Land Fund could be recovered, the Consolidated Fund could bear its legitimate burdens. The Land Fund in ceitain districts was insufficient to meet its liabilities, arid it would therefore be necessary to supplement the Consolidated Revenue, or to relieve it of charges proposed that it should bear. It was necessary to aid the Consolidated Fund, but not as some persons suggested, by property and income-tax. In the present position of the-colony, taxation was a subject not lightly to be touched. It was a subject requiring careful thought. The two principles—the consolidation of the Land Fund, and charging the cost of immigration, roads, and railways against the Land Fund—were clearly recognised as underlying the legislation affecting waste lands, immigration, and public works. With regard to the localization of • the Land Fuhd, he understood "localization" to mean- that the. proceeds of sale of Crown lands within a district should be used to open up and people that district; if then the State found the money beforehand for these purposes, it should be charged against the Land Fund, and that it was in accordance with the principle of localization to charge against the Land Fund of each district any sum not exceeding the amount sxpended within that district in any way which Parliament might determine as most convenient. The estimated revenue for the colony for 1877-8 was £3,392,685 ; adding to the estimated revenue the surplus with which the year was begun, there would be a total of £3,540,905. Deducting the estimated expenditure there remained a surplus of £431,150. Of that sum £329,369 was distributable among Counties as surplus Land Fund, leaving a balance of £101.781 available to meet possible deficiences of the Land Fund in Certain districts. Re Railway Construction, the Government, preferring delay in the completion of the Railway System to an incomplete Estimate, would only ask for "a sum sufficient to unite the already completed sec-

tion of the line from Amberley to Kingston, andjfor extension of the main lines in other parts of the cohviv for wluVh an additional Ways and .Moans to the amount of £940,443 would be re pun-d. The total proposed expenditure on Public works for the year would hi £1,796,451. The Colonial Treasurer, in conclusion, explained why the Government thought the country should have time and rest for the complete development of the Public Works System. He said that the proposals of the Government would secure this state of 'things, and asked for their early and most careful consideration.