The press. SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1873.

Press, Volume XXI, Issue 2410, 26 April 1873, Page 2

The press. SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1873.

A most unprofitable discussion lias lately been carried on between tbe Wellington journals on the accuracy of the last quarterly aceouut published by the Colonial Treasury. We say unprofitable, because it would seem that the objectors to the quarterly return have been influenced by a wish to represent the actual state of the colonial finances as much worse than the return in question would lead one to suppose ; whilst the Government organ can do little more than assert on the other side that the alleged inaccuracies are visionary, and would disappear on due allowance being made for sums known to be payable —for example; — interest on the public debt, which, beiug paid in London, had not been at the end of the quarter charged to account in the colony. The practical inutility of the quarterly accounts of the Treasury, as published, has long been apparent to all those who have charged themselves with the task of examining them with the view of arriving at any clear and reliable results. It may, therefore, be desirable that attention should be called to the existing system on which the colonial expenditure is conducted from year to year, and to show a simple way in which the general inquirer may ascertain with tolerable accuracy the probabilities of the finance of the year working out according to estimate. The Assembly having by act authorised a certain expenditure for the year, it is beyond the power of the Ministers to expend in excess of those appropriations, save to such an extent as the Legislature has deliberately sanctioned by the Public Revenues Act. On the subject of the power given by that Act to exceed appropriations, and on the manner in which the Legislature has dealt with that question, we shall have something to say on another occasion. At present our object is to show what means there are of coming to some fair general conclusions as to the condition of our current finance during the recess of Parliament, and also to comment on the quarterly accounts of the Treasury as at present issued. In the first place, it is necessary to watch from quarter to quarter the returns of the Customs and other items of ordinary revenue during the recess. En doing this, it is requisite to see bow far these returns of revenue actually received, justify the estimate of the Colonial Treasurer for the whole financial year. Allowance must be made in this operation for the fact that some quarters are always more productive of revenue than others; but as these are, we believe, habitually so, there is no great dauber of being misled in this respect. It may be remarked that tbe items of revenue requiring the most careful inquiry are Customs and Stamps, these being the most liable to fluctuation, and affording the best guide to an estimate of the prosperity of the colony. The verification of the Treasurer's estimates cf revenue by the actual receipts 13, in short, the main point in the whole calculation ; for unless tlie estimates of revenue have shown a large surplus over the appropriations, or utiles- the Ministers can effect large savings on votes, it is plain that any failure in revenue receipts as compared with revenue estimates, must lead to an immediate increase of tho floaring debt of the colony. As a rule the saviuss on votes can never be very considerable, and are generally likely to be used up under the power : given fey th? Public Act of \ i

applying savings on votes to overexpenditure on othor voles. Having come to a conclusion from quarter to quarter as to the probable revenue results for the whole financial year, the next step is to compare the whole year's revenue so estimated with the total authorised expenditure for the whole year. What we are anxious to impress on our readers is the useless-" ness of haggling over such questions as whether certain items of expenditure have been paid and brought to account during a particular period of the financial year, when it is a fact that so much appropriations have been made by Parliament, and that Ministers can only exceed these to an amount fixed by law. But in making the comparison above-mentioued ifc is important not to lose eight of the amount of excess over appropriations that the Ministers may expend. This amount has by recent legislation reached to no less than £100,000, or from one-tenth to one-eleventh of the whole ordinary revenue of the colony. The magnitude of this power, and the fact that it may be, and probably would be, used towards the end of any financial year in which it became necessary to use it at all, makes ifc important to treat the whole of it as a dependency of any estimate, formed by persons not conuected with the Government, during the currency of a financial year. Apart, however, from the value of the controversy in the Wellington papers, it is worth while to see how far the quarterly accounts of the Treasury contribute to the public information. As a general rule we believe that their value for this purpose is rather less than nothing, inasmuch as they are not seldom extremely likely to mislead the unwary. The casual observer who sees at the cud of the quarter a great balance to the credit of the Consolidated Fund, is not unlikely to believe that the colony is in the enjoyment of a redundant revenue; while all the time this balance may be exhausted, and something over, by payments made out of other funds, but not at that particular time " brought to account in the Colony. We have never been able to understand why drafts, as for instance on proceeds of loans in London to pay interest in London, should not be charged to the Consolidated Fund and credited to the loan in the Special Fund when the drafts are given. It may he that such a proceeding would lie business-like, and therefore unsuited to transactions of the Colonial Government. It appears to us, that by far the best method of putting the public in possession of quarterly information would be that a plain and very short statement should be issued by the Commissioners of Control and Audit, giving on one side the actual receipts of ordinary revenue, passing into the Consolidated Fund during the quarter, and, on the other, the issues on that fund made by them during the same period. If the new system passed into law last session is such as it should be to justify the name of pre-audit given to it, it is clear that the books of the Commissioners must contain entries of every authority to pay issued by them, and a statement of these issues during any given period should represent accurately the disbursements for that period. In fact the issues of the Board of Control and Audit should, we think, be treated as disbursements in making up accounts for the public information.