THE FINANCIAL STATE

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 11, 31 May 1888, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL STATE-

MENT ___ _*__ -~mm In the House on, Tuesday evening, the Treasurer delivered the Financial Statement. He paid he had estimated the deficit for the year at which was subsequently increased to £312,653 by tho disallowance of some proposed reductions and supplementary estimates. But owing partly to sums paid in compensation to dismissed officers, and partly to other causes, the actual deficit was £382,047, to which had to be added the deficit of the previous year, .£148,556, making a total deficit of £527,603 for the two years, but the outstanding liabilities had been reduced about £60,500. The revenue as a whole did not realise the estimate by £105,336, the railway receipts accounting for £68,174 of this, and land revenue for £36,000. The Customs duties and stamps were slightly less than the estimate. The expenditure as a whole was less than the estimate by £33,942, including £22,104 paid as compensation for loss of office. The total gross debt at the end of March, deducting sinking funds in hand, amounted to £35,536,381, as against £34,314,454 at the end of the previous financial yoar. EXPENDITURE FOR 1888-9. The estimated amount of interest to be paid was £72,872 more than was paid last year, this additional amount being partly required for interest on temporary loans raised last year by the late Ministry. The total proposed expenditure was £3,953,593 on ordinary account, and £107,245 from the land fund, tbe latter being for surveys, rates on Crown lands, and payments to local bodies under Act. These sums, however, made no provision for school or other public buildings, nor for subsidies to local bodies, for which other proposals would be submitted, REVENUE FOR 1888-9. The estimate of revenue for the year on the existing basis of taxation, pa* including a sum <tf $363,2QQ to be

received from the sale of sinking fund debentures, was £3,897,400 on ordinary revenue account, and ,£119,000 from the land fund, making a total of which would leave a deficit of 444,438, which would probably be increased to £56,193, It was estimated that 460,000 would be required for buildings, Half being for schools and .£30,000 subsidies to local bodies, thus making a total sum of .£146,193 to be provided for. They therefore propose that the tax on tea should be increased . by two-pence per pound, and that onehalf of the whole duty received from tea should be set aside and devoted to the payment of these subsidies. Through speculative clearances and two months of the year having already passed, the estimated produce of the tax for this year, with the additional duty added, would only be .£114,000. One half o; this would be £57,000, which would be enough to pay a subsidy of five shillings in the pound for the current year, and it was proposed to supplement that sum with .£30,000 from the general revenue. TAXATION PROPOSALS. .It is proposed to raise a large number of articles from 15 to 20 per cent ad valorem, and some to 25 per cent, and to increase specific duties in many cases proportionately. The total amount which these duties will raise is estimated at .£173,000, but I can only give this as approximate. I may here point out that .£25,000 of this taxation would not be necessary if Parliament saw fit to raise the school age at which capitation is payable to six years, instead of five as at present, and to abolish the Education Boards. The Government do not intend to propose the alteration this year, in deference to what they believe to be the wish of Parliament as expressed last session, but I feel it my duty to point out to the committee where another .£25,000 a year could be saved without at,y injury whatever to our educational system, and I would ask hon. members again whether the colony can at present afford so large a sum to provide what is little more than nursery accomodation. PROVISION FOR THE DEFICIT OF 1887-88. I have now to state how it is proposed to meet the £128,603 standing to our debit on the 31st March last. It is clear to the Government that we must not let the paying off of this debt depend upon the occasion of a sufficient surplus at some future time, and we think a special tax should be imposed and set apart for the purpose. Our proposal, if somewhat novel, will, I hope, meet with the approval of the Committee ; it is that a primage duty of 1 per cent, be levied upon all goods imported into the colony, whether free or dutiable, for two years, and that the proceeds be applied to the payment of the £128.000. This duty, it is estimated, will yield about £58,000 a year, and the small balance over may be safely left to be met from the ordinary revenue.