The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3457, 14 August 1868, Page 2

The Daily Southern Cross.

LUCEO, NON T7BO. If I h»T« bien txtlnonUbid. y»t tlim rtit A. thotuftnd bttooni from tha ip»rk I bort.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14.

In" the last session of the Assembly a new division of the revenue was made. Up to that time the Colonial Government was in receipt of five-eighths of the revenue, and the provinces got three-eighths as then? share. Out of this three-eighths the provinces paid their way\ "With this money roads were made, bridges kept in repair, Eoad Boards subsidized, and all the fabric of provincial institutions kept up. So long as this money was paid there was something tolerably certain for the Provincial Governments to calculate upon in making up their estimates. The Customs revenue might fluctuate, but on the whole it was a fairly reliable source of income. At the worat it was more certain than land revenue, and therefore a more really important part of the available ways and means of the provinces. Some of this money was wasted beyond all question by the provinces, but not so much, as some imagine. It was when borrowing was had recourse to that extravagance became rife among us. It was when a province found itself with a few hundred thousands in its treasury that it generally lost its balance and began all sorts of mad schemes, which landed it in something like bankruptcy. But last session, as we have said, a new division of the revenue was made. The Government proposed to give the provinces not three-eighths but one-half of the revenue raised within their borders. They were only to pay out of this for a few departmental officers, and this expenditure was made very light of by the Colonial Treasurer. Our members accepted the plan, and It became the recognised principle. Instead of threeeighths of revenue we now get four-eighths or one-half, and out of that we pay certain General Government salaries to officers within the province. It is a matter of something more than curiosity to trace the result of the new plan. Our members, let us not forget, were pleased with it when it was proposed. They thought the plan likely to be very good for the province, likely in short to put more revenue into our hands for local purposes. The Colonial Treasurer, we feel pretty sure, thought otherwise ; and the Colonial Treasurer, and not our members, was right, as events have proved. The new arrangement has had this effect —it has reduced the province of Auckland to a condition bordering upon bankruptcy. It may be said that our own loan is to blame for this, and so it is in great measure. But in spite of our loan we should not have been in so apparently hopeless a state as now, but for this new arrangement. The returns of the revenue for the March quarter of this year are before us, and they serve to point the moral of what we say, sufficiently to illustrate our position. In that quarter the revenue collected in this province was, in round figures, £35,000, Three-eighths of £35,000 would, have been a sum of upwards of £15,000, which, under the three-eighths system,we might have received, with a small deduction for revenue not formerly divided with the provinces ,at all. The half of £35,000, of course, is £17,500 ; and this, under the present system, is our share. From this, however, the Government at once makes its small deductions for official salaries. There were between £10,000 and £11,000 stopped from Auckland's share in the March quarter on this account, leaving, as her share of the revenue about £7,000 for the quarter, or some thing less than half of three-eighths. Let us pause for a moment to consider what these figures mean. The revenue of Auckland is at the rate of £140,000 a-year just now ; the debt of Auckland requires about £40,000 a-year to pay its interest and sinking fund. Thus the revenue collected here would pay our debts, interest and sinking fund, three--and-a-half times over, if we had it all. If we had half of it for local purposes, it would pay the same liabilities, and leave us a balance for local improvements of £30,000 a-year. If we got even a third part it would leave a balance in our favour of upwards of £6,000 a-year. But instead of a balance in our favour, the new plan leaves a balance against us of no less than £12,000 a-year. In other words, the Central Government is spending considerably more than three-quar-ters of all the revenue raised. "We do not allude to this now for the purpose of showing how very shortsighted pur legislators were in receiving .with pleasure a proposal leading to such results as this. Our object is of more importance, we believe, than - this. At the present time we are ,aU.' more or less agitated by .the eipecta- v tion of change in our form of government and increased economy in our legislators. In looking forward to the future we must remember the past. The Provincial Govern- r ment, which is in such deep disfavour now, " is so because it is bankrupt. There is no mistake about it — this is true. "Were tHere , money to be had for roads and bridg'e's*^^ were not the Government driven to poll \ax expedients and other desperate shifts to maintain its ground — it would still be respected, or at least it would not be scouted. But its poverty and bankruptcy is not all its own act. Bad though its management has been, it could Btill keep its head above water were it not worse treated by the Central y Government than formerly.' Its gold], revenue would not be impounded, and < its goldfield given up to neglect.- Its treasury would not be wholly empty, and resort • h'ad to poll taxes to get a morsel of bread for its - poor, were it not that the Central Government at Wellington finds that less than £41,000 a-year will not suffice to pay the salaries paid by the General Government within this province. The sins of the Provincial Government of Auckland have not; been few, we readily admit, but it must not be supposed that it is worse than its neighbours. It is the General Government and not the provincial extravagance that drives us to desperation and makes us foolish enough even to try a poll tax.

We learn from a Wellington telegram of Tuesday last that the debate on Mr. Fox's ■motion was expected tobe concluded on Wed.

neiday last. It was estimated that the Government would have a majority of seven. Colontl Haultain had gone to whanganui And Patea to endeavour to put in order matten there, which are in a state of great confusion. He had paired off with Mr. jsolleston.

Bt special telegram from Wellington, we are enabled to give the true account of how the Maori prisoners escaped from the Chatham Islands. The 'Stormbird/ which was despatched from Wellington to the Chatham Islands, returned to the former place on Monday last. If it were not that the affair is tragical and threatening, the way in which it was managed by the Maoris woula be infinitely amusing. Information of the intended rising was, it seems, given to the guard, but was most unfortunately disregarded. The prisoners rose, stormed and took the redoubt, and handcuffed the guard, one of them, named Harriett, who resisted, being killed. They then seized £600 in cash, 4,000 rounds of ammunition, and all the arms they could get. They also took the precaution of rendering all the vessels useless that were lying at the Chathams, so that the people there were prisoners till the arrival of ' Stormbird.' The whole affair, like the escape from the Kawau, seems to hare been managed with immense skill — not a single precaution was omitted, and nothing was left undone. Colonel Whitmore, Captain Biggs, Major Fraßer, and all the other high military dignitaries, engaged with such overwhelming foroes against the fugitives, will be smarter than we give them credit for if they manage to come up with the renegades before they get clear away to the TTrewera country, where they can laugh at any attempt at pursuit.