POLITICAL NOTES.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2684, 23 September 1871, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT. The Timaru Gazette, "after a careful review of Mr Vogel’s Financial Statement, -has come to the conclusion that it is a satisfactory one, indeed much more so than could be expected. The admitted deficiency in the revenue is easily accounted for by the depressed state of affairs in the Colony, which has prevailed during the last two or three years ; indeed the wonder is that the falling-off in the revenue' is comparatively so small. The Gazette has firm faith in Mr Vogel’s policy if the policy is to go ahead at all, and believe it to be a sound one, based on common sense, and a reliance on the natural resources of the country, which want money and population to develop them. The Cromwell Argus approves of the udget generally, but looks forward to a considerable deficiency in revenue during the passing year. It : trusts, however, that the Treasurer’s computations for the present year may be characterised by a degree of accuracy which is unfortunately too seldom the case in anticipatory statements of revenue and expenditure. The Tuapeka Times gives the Treasurer every credit for the indomitable energy he has brought to bear upon his mission to England, and congratulates, him ppon the comparative success which has attended it. It considers the deficiency in the revenue only partly accounted for, and admits that the Treasurer meets the difficulty straight iu the face, aud at once proposes certain changes and reductions which, if adopted, will, without adding any-objectionable taxation, reduce the expenditure, apd, he estimates, give a surplus of some L7OOO, He wishes his Budget' to be' known as the Retrenchment Budget; add- undoubtedly, if his proposals are carried into effect, there will be considerable retrenchment. The Times says the belief of the General Government, that should be made less costly is one which has -been growing-upon the public of Otago for some years past, and any reasonable means of reducing the-,costliness of the Provincial system, as worked in Otago, will be hailed,- with delight. But while the Government is taking, so much into its hands, more ought; to be given in return, , it.is thought that in the interior of the country where district roads are little used, the great want is a good main road to open up communication with other centres of population, and some portion of the loan might be wisely appropriated to the completion of some of these roads commenced by ,the Provincial Government, but which it was unable to carry on for the want of funds. The Waikouaiti Herald thinks the an-' uouncemeut made iu the Budget speech, that the Government will not be a party to the construction of any line of railway wMch cannot reasonably be expected to pay its own working expenses, a very satisfactory one, and that to the people of Otago it is very important. If this determination is carried, out, there need not be any fear that we are going on too fast, or that the Colony will be unable to bear the financial burden which the cost of those lines will entail. The Herald is dissatisfied with the modes by which Treasurer intends to make up for the pasp year’s deficieucy in the revenue; and with the modifications in the form of Provincialism, which do not grapple properly with the subject. It says:—‘‘lf the present Government repudiates its old professions of what they called Constitutionalism, and have determined to take up the ideas of their old opponents, and carry them out for them, let it be gone about pluckily, aud no halting at a half-and-half measure like that which is now promised.” PROVINCIAL CONTROL OF PUBLIC WORKS. - Looked at from one point, the proceeding affords us an inkling of the probable results of those modification schemes as applied to Public Works policy so strongly insisted upon a very few months ago. The object was to get the pecuniary control of the Province. That in fact the General Government should provide the money, and the Provincial Government should spend it. Had that design succeeded, in what position would the outlying districts of this Province been placed ? Let us instance the railway works projected for Southland. Contracts would have been let in terms of -the schedule of the Act, but when the contractors came to supply for the instalments of their money, they would find, as the late T *wn Board contractors have done, that it had been appropriated to other purposes ; that it had been paid away, not as payment for public works, but in liquidation of that extravagant departmental expenditure which is the stronghold of Provincial Government, at least in Otago, Contractors would be told to wait till fresh funds were received,, and as a matter of course their half finishtW. undertakings would have to wait likewise. In a word, the shifting of this control to the Province would have been to ruin the scheme in its entirety, aud the moiH3 Otago looks at the conduct .of its Provincial authorities, the more reason will be found for excluding their interference in every matter involving pecuniary considerations. —Southland Times,