The Press. TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1876.

Press, Volume XXVI, Issue 3404, 1 August 1876, Page 2

The Press. TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1876.

The tables appended to tbe Financial Statement do not after all give us much assistance. They are only those which are ordinarily published. They include a table showing in detail the exact amount of colonial and provincial indebtedness on the 30th June, with the annual charge for intereat aud sinking fund ; statements of the receipts and expenditure in each of the numerous branches of the public account during the year 1875-G ; returns of the customs duties, and of the value of the imports and exports at each port and for each proviuce ; the amount and value of the exports of grain, gold, wool, and flax ; and several tables in which the imports aud exports of this colony, for each of the last eight or nine years, are compared with those of Victoria and New South Wales, The first table is of course indispensable to any enquiry

into the state of the colonial finances. But it has no special adaptation to the purposes of this year's budget. None of the tables have been prepared with the view of illustrating Sir J. Yogel's present proposals, and do not supply what is necessary to aid us in forming an opinion as to their results. For example, one thing which we want to have, and which ought to have been published with the statement, is a return showing the effect of the proposals respecting the land fund. There should have been a table giving the amount of land revenue estimated to accrue in each province during the financial year —or rather, during the nine months from the date of abolition; the amount chargeable on the land revenue in each province under the Financial Arrangements Act; and, as the case might be, the surplus remaining for division among the counties, or the deficiency needing to be supplied from the consolidated fund. We may be told that the data for preparing such an estimate are to be found in the statements of account already presented. That may be. But the Treasurer should have given the information himself in an intelligible form, instead of imposing i on the public the labour of picking I out the items. Nor is this by any means an easy task. Persons not initiated into the mysteries of Treasury bookkeeping may well be excused if they go astray among the intricacies of the multitude of accounts, or are unable to comprehend the meaning of the entries. For instance, turning to table C, which gives the receipts and expenditure of the land fund for the year 1875-6, we find credit taken for receipts from sales of confiscated land, to the amount of £36,404.. This sum is divided between the provinces of Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, and Hawke's Bay; presumably according as it accrued in each. The expenditure on account of confiscated lands is put down as £39,038. But of this sum, only £7720 is charged against the provinces ; the balance, £31,318, being accounted for as liabilities to June 30th, 1875. It seems, then, that the General Government has accumulated a considerable amount of debt in its dealings with the confiscated lands, all of which is to be defrayed by the colony, while the whole of the income derived from the lands is made over to the provinces. Looking to the detailed statement of the land fund as a branch of the Public Account, we see tbat, of the £31,318 styled liabilities, £20,500 consisted of a " repayment to the Public Works " account of advances made there- " from." Bat how came the confiscated lands account in a position to make the repayment? Simply by borrowing from the Defence loan. On the opposite page we find the sum of £20,500 appearing as a " transfer from " Defence loan, for repayment to " Public Works account of tern" porary advances." There is also a further " transfer from Defence loan " of £24,500, " to provide for liabilities and engagements." This is an ingenious system of finance—imitated from and rivalling the best efforts of the dexterous manipulators of the pea and thimble. It is a pity we cannot watch the transaction a little further. The cost of the confiscated lands is defrayed by a draft on the Immigration and Public Works loan, and the Public Works loan is repaid by a draft on the Defence loan. We should like to know whence the Defence loan is to be repaid. Unluckily that is not stated. However, taking the figures as they stand in the return before us, we cannot help remarking on the extraordinary increase in the receipts from the confiscated lands. In the year 1874-5 they were £18, i.51. Last year they nearly doubled that amount, being £36,404 The revenue accruing to Auckland from this source was £20,872 ; a sum which must have made the Provincial authorities begin to feel some revival of the sensations, long dormant in their case, of the satisfaction that attends the possession of a land fund. There is encouragement here for the hopes of those who, as Sir Julius says, " think that in course of time the " districts which now yield little laud " revenue will yield more than those " which at present are more fortu- " nate." But that time, we fear, is atill remote. For the present the appearances are of a lias cheering character. Unexpectedly large as is the amount of land revenue available to Auckland, yet when weighed against the burdens proposed to be laid on it,it is found lamentably wanting. Of these charges, the land and survey expenses are j stated in the table as £4298. The in- ! terest on the provincial debt is £41,487. The total expenditure and liabilities on account of railways constructed in the province was on June 30th, according to the Public Works Statement, £821,402; the two per cent payable on which would involve a charge of £16,428. The two-thirds of expenditure on education chargeable on the land fund is estimated by the General Government at £16,107 for nine months, or at the rate of £21,556 for the year. The subsidies to the Counties and Eoad Boards payable out of land fund may be reckoned at £14,000. These sums put together make a total of £97,769, against a land revenue of £22,425 ; leaving a deficiency to be " guaranteed" from the consolidated fund, and meanwhile to be supplied by tho aid of Treasury Bills, of no less than £75,344.