The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 321, 28 November 1855, Page 7

The Lyttelton Times.

Wednesday, Nov. 28. The letter of the Colonial Secretary (dated 17th October) on the subject of the temporary adjustment of the Land Revenue which appeared in the Provincial Government Gazette of the 17th inst., and in late issues of our contemporary, the " Canter bury Standard," is so unintelligible and obscure, that we did not feel called upon to burden our columns with it. This lettevenclosed what is called a " Finance Statement" bjr •me Auditor-General, a document, if possibfe,,more unintelligible than the despatch itself. As a specimen of the nature and value of Finance Statements, or any other statements emanating from the General Government officers, we may draw attention to;;ithe fact that, among1 other mistakes, there is an error of £10,000 in the mere summing-up of the Auditor-General's account. But what is £ 10,000 to a man who disclaims any knowledge of the manner in which £41.000 has disappeared,—■ who does not know the difference between an asset and a liability,—between an apparent surplus and a real deficiency ?" We observe that His Honor the Superintendent in publishing the Auditor's Finance Statement in the Provincial Government Gazette has been obliged to append a memorandum correcting eight mistakes in the summing. "We are bound to say that the most important does not exceed the sum above named, viz., £10,000. Nobody is so simple as to believe that the real adjustment of accounts will be made on the faith of any of the silly documents signed by the Auditor-General ; we are sure that our readers will be thankful to us for not having plagued them with accounts, of which we have just given such a specimen. We will statj shortly the result at which Dr. Knight has arrived ; as the amount of land revenue placed at our disposal must be subject (o his will until the next session of the General Assembly. The wny in which he chooses to arrive at his result is wholly unimportant, as it is sure to be absurd. A statement of the amounts which the several Provinces are to receive at once will prove more interesting to our readers. It is as follows ; — Auckland . . . £ 19,166 New Plymouth . . 2,177 Wellington . . 13,261 Nelson . . . 2,510 Canterbury . . 1,506 Otago . . . 1,013 £39,603 Why the Province of Canterbury should be put off with £1,506, after the wholesale robbery which has been perpetrated upon our Laud Fund, we have of course no means of finding out. We must trust to the next Session of the General Assembly to elucidate the accounts as far as possible, and to do justice to the defrauded Provinces. The tenor of the last letter of the Colonial Secretary shows us how hopeless it would be to ask for justice at the hands of the present Government, even at a time when the}' are pretending to adjust the accounts between the General and Provincial Governments. As we have given a specimen of the Auditor-General's Finance Statement, it is only fair that we should give one of the Colonial Secretary's letter, which accompanied that valuable document. There is a

happy, self-confident spirit o. repudiation of liabilities in the letter alluded to, for which we can find no more appropriate name than that of " Slumpolism." Any one who has read " Bleak House," and who remembers Mr. Skimpnle's manner of settling accounts with his butcher, and of easing his own conscience at the same time, will be able to form a very good idea of the style of argument adopted. If the following' paragraph, which we quote from the Colonial Secretary's letter, was penned in honest, hopeless imbecility, it is still too serious a misconstruction to be laughed at. Tf it is a wilful perversion of the simple meaning of the House of Representatives, dictated by an impotent wish to thwart their measures, it is calculated to arouse the bitterest indignation of that house. The Colonial Secretary says : — "The House desires that. Land Fund deposits amounting to £32,000, after deducting certain expenses, shall be treated as available, and divided among the Provinces, and in order to secure this division it has authorised £30,000 to be borrowed. In other words, the Executive Government is empowered to contract a debt of £30,000 and upwards, and to divide it among the Provinces. It is evident that a continuance in such a course would lead to disastrous consequences." Now, what are the facts of the case ? The Finance Committee of the House of Representatives found that £32.000, which was due to the Provinces, had been spent by the General Government:. The House determined naturally enough that the G_eneral Government ought to pay its debts, and took measures to ensure this act of justice. Mr. Skimpole says that " a continuance of such a course (that is, paying one's debts) would lead to disastrous consequences." To gloss over this nefarious doctrine, he omits to state that this £32 ; 000 is a liability of the General Government, (by the-by, this is the identical liability which the Auditor General called an asviet), and says barefacedly that the House resolved that a debt should be contracted of £30,000 and upwards to divide it amongst the Provinces. Most of our readers will think that we have dragged them far enough into such " financial statements" accompanied by such official explanations.

We are informed that the Commissioner of Crown Lands has paid into the Provincial Treasury upwards of £! ,300 on account, of the moiety of Land Fund due to the Province from the Ist July. We have good reason for stating our expectation that upwards of £1.000 more will be paid into the Provincial Chest at the end of this month. This is independent of the debt of £1,506, which we believe is to be paid at once by the Geuerai Government.

We are happy to he able to state that Mr Sewell intends to defer his departure for England until after the next Session, in consequence of a requisition from the electors of the Province, requesting1 him to represent Christchurch again in the House of Representatives. As Mr. Fitz Gerald will go up as member for Lyttelton, we may congratulate the Province upon the prospect of having its two towns so ably represented.