THE ESTIMATES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2092, 27 August 1901, Page 3

THE ESTIMATES.

THE ROYAL VISIT. COST TO THE COLONY—£SO,OOO. WHAT THE CONTINGENTS COST. THE IMPERIAL AND INDIAN TROOPS—COST £3,000. WELLINGTON, August 17. As is customary, the Consolidated Estimates were circulated along with the Budget last evening. The appropriations last year totalled £3,211,153 ; for the current year £3,329,334 is asked. The principal increase is in the Colonial Secretary’s Department, due to the ducal visit and the taking of the census. The amounts appropriated for the several departments last year and required for the current year are 1901-2. a.900-1. Legislative Department £19,887 £26,2'2'2 Colonial Secretary’s Department 185,438 127,542 Colonial Treasurer’s Department 44,424 43,175 Justice Department . 129,961 129,092 Postal and Telegraph... 441,214 410,586 Stamps and Deeds ... 89,071 92,601 Education and Lunacy 581,689 560,069 Labor Department ... 7,790 8,511 Agriculture Department 91,881 74,581 Railways 1,152,000 1,069,313 Public and School Buildings 46,750 47,425 Defence 213,250 287,434 Police 122,258 119,689 Lands and Survey ... 127,130 142,850 Valuation 25,590 23,ta.0 Rates on Crown Lands 800 1,075 Totals £3,329,334 £3,911,153 In the Legislative Department the second clerk assistant of the House receives an additional £25, making his salary £325, and the reader (£150) also gets an increase of a like amount. In the Colonial Secretary’s Department there is an increase of £25 for the Undersecretary (who. now draws £SOO per annum) and for the Registrar-General (£450). The Government Printer, by an additional increment of £25, gets £SOO, and the superintending overseer is raised by £ls to £335. The cost of the Health Department (wlrch appears for the first time) is set down at £12,784. The principal salaries are : —Chief Health Officer (Dr Mason), £BOO ; chief clerk, £235 ; six health officers (at £SOO each), £3,000; health officer to the Maoris (Dr Pomare), £3OO ; eight sanitary inspectors, (at £150), £2,200. The cost of vaccination is stated to be £1,500, and of inspection of vessels £1,600. For taking the census on April 1 £17,900 is required. In the Industries Department the. salary of the Superintendent (Mr Donne) is raised by £SO to £SOO, and £450 is asked for tbe Trade Representative (Mr Gow). Last year £I,OOO was voted for the promotion of the sale of New Zealand produce in outside markets, while the amount nowasked is £3,000. A new' vote (£4,000) appears for grain grading on behalf of the Imperial Government. For the branch offices that it is proposed to establish in connection with the Tourist Department at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill £3OO is required for each place. At Whakarewarewa (Rotorua) £SOO is to be spent in improvements, and £SOO for a new accommodation-house at Hamner.

The cost of the Royal tour is disclosed as £50,000; The items arc:—Grant to the Governor in reimbursement of expenses incurred by him. £2,250; grant to AllRhodes, Mayor of Christchurch (ditto), £247; grant to Ministers and their secretaries (including £l5O for ordinary travelling allowance), £350; expenses connected with the renovating, furnishing, etc., of the various residences in the colony that were occupied by the visitors, £1,000; reviews and massing of troops, veterans, and cadets at various centres, with freights, passages, and ii cidental expenses connected therewith, £20,000. Miscellaneous: Entertainments (including Commissioners' salaries and expenses, also expenses of invited guests from Australia and elsewhere and Press representatives), £12,153 j Railway Department, for carriage of troops, cadets, veterans. Maoris, etc., £10,000; street decorations, arches, platforms, and safeguards, £6,500; police protection, freights, passages, etc., £2,500. Total, less £5,000 recoveries from sale of material and fittings. Last year £SOO was voted for the Federation Commission. For the expenses of this body a, vote of £3,800 is now asked. The vote of last year by way of grant to swimming associations for encouragement of swimming was £2OO. This year the vote is doubled. In the Treasury Department the salary of Secretary Hey wood is raised by £SO to £BOO, and "that of Under-Secretary Collins by £25 to £550. Coining to the Education Department, 1 find an increase of £25 to the assistant secretary, making his " screw " £425. Last year £8,250 was voted as a temporary addition to teachers' salaries. The additional statutory capitation now asked for is £28,450. * The capitation grant to Boards on the average attendance, however, still remains at £3 15s. In the Industrial Schools branch the following new salaries are provided:—For assistant inspector, £250: official correspondent at Dunedin, £125 ; two visiting officers of boarded out and service inmates, £344. Provision is made for the industrial school which it is intended to establish at Levin, the manager receiving £IBO and the matron £7O. Technical instruction is seemingly to receive attention during the ensuing year, as the vote for capitation is increased to £7,500, and these three new items apepar: Material, apparatus, and appurtenances, £1,500; training of teachers, £1,875; scholarships (six months), £I,OOO. In the Department of Labor the chief clerk is advanced, to £350.

The Under-Secretary for Mines (Mr Elliot) is raised by £SO to £6OO. A new vote is a grant of £250 to the School of Mines at the Otago University. As in the case of • the heads of other departments, the secretary of the Agricultural Department (Mr Ritchie) is given an increase of £SO, making his salary £600 ; and the Produce Commissioner in England (Mr Cameron') is lifted by " a century" to £4OO. When the Estimates were under consideration twelve months ago, Mr T. Mackenzie and others urged that this official was underpaid last year. £2,300 was voted for grading dairy produce; now £3,000 is recpiired. In the Defence Department the officer commanding the Otago district (Colonel Webb) is given an addition of £25, and new votes are provided for an extra officer commanding L.ie sub-district at £IOO, an assistant adjutant at £2OO, a mounted instructor (six months) at £IOO, and a storekeeper (six months) at £SO. Under-Secre-tary Douglas has an increase of £25, bringing his salary up to £475. In the headquarters appear these new items: Staif officer (also mounted infantry duties in the North Island), £300; staff official (also mounted infantry duties in the South Island). It would not surprise me to learn that these posts are to be offered to Colonel Davis (Hawera) and Colonel Robin (Dunedin), both of the First Contingent. Last year's vote of £1,500 as prizes for rifle shooting is increased to £2,500, and a new vote (£1,000) for purchase and keep of horses for field batteries appears. For volunteer encampments £6,000 is provided, or £I,OOO more than last year. On the other hand, the capitation allowance is reduced by £IO,OOO to £30,000. Seemingly the days of the colonial rn'ize meeting are at an end, for among the " miscellaneous" votes I notice that £l,ooo is voted bj r way of annual grant for rifle club prizes for shooting, £250 being voted for each volunteer district. For expenses of the contingents to Australia in connection with the Commonwealth celebrations, £5;000 is required to be voted, and for expenses in connection with the visit of the Imperial and Indian troops £I,OOO (in addition to £2,000 paid for railway transit). For the passages to England of Colonel Penton, Major Madocks, and Captain M'Kenzie, on the completion of their engagements, £3OO is asked. Last year's vote of £5,000 for volunteer camps of instruction is increased to £B,OOO. Last year £96,000 was voted in connection with the South African contingents, and £87,997 of this sum has been expended. An additional vote of £30,000 is wanted for the current year. In the Police Department, the salary of Commissioner Tunbridge is raised by "£25 to £7OO, and, after a recent discussion in the House, it is safe to say that Mr Fisher's voice will alone be heard in dissent. In local votes, increases of £2O and £lO respectively are granted to the cadet and bailiff at Dunedin. Last year £1,525 was voted to the warders in the Dunedin prison; for the current year £1,580 is required. Two cadets in the Dunedin Stamp Office each get a £lO increase. A new vote in connection with the Seacliff- Asylum is £230 for an engineer. The new deputy-registrar at the Dunedin Supreme Court only gets £220, whereas the former occupant received £240; and the cadet merely gets £6O, against £lO5 formerly paid. The crier gets a £lO increase. For the expenses on the Royal Commission on Coal Mines £1,900 is.* asked, and for the Royal Commission an Rivers £1,200.

£2OO is 'set anait for the Sir George Grey science scholarships—one to each university college. In the unauthorised expenditure account presented to Parliament last night appeared the following items:—Expenses connected -with the charter of vessels to South Africa for the conveyance of reniQimts and produce, £11,815; widow of Sergeant Brown, of South Dunedin, £200; expenses in connection with the despatch of the Federal Contingent to Sydney on the occasion of the inauguration" of the Commonwealth, £2.779; expenses of the reception of the Imperial troops, £1,515; gratuity to the mother of the late E. J .Simpson, draughtsman, Otago, £6O. The total of the unauthorised expenditure is £107,336. There is a vote of £l5O for the Otago School of Mines, and an additional £SOO per annum under the heading of mining school*.