The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1864.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1297, 29 September 1864, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1864.

When Mr. Ojtrdwell asserted in tl»e House of Commons that to the best of his knowledge and belief all commissariat advances to the Government of New Zealand had ceased from December last, we may be sure he had good grounds for his statement. Instructions had been sent to that effect. Yet he was quite right to express himself in qualified and hesitating language, for absolute dependence can be placed on no checks to commissariat expenditure in the colony ot which Sir George Grey is Governor. II the colonists of New Zealand really were, as they have been described, anxious for nothing else but the distribution of Imperial cash among them, they would almost worship the great Pro-Consul. It is not and never has been an object with the Governor to save the public money; it does not seem to be even one of his cares to measure its present amouut or future supply. His plans (if he has &ny) not founded upon considsrations of cost. The work which he does, whether in peace or war, *is usually expensive in a high degree. Ordinary men could not find the money required even by the greatest foresight; but Sir George Grey takes no thought of cost. And if the common belief be truly founded, that his ' policy' is but a series of expedients devised as occasion may demand, the same may be even more truly asserted ot his finance. To foster such a system, the presence of a commissariat chest, to be drawn upon at pleasure, is the one thing most fit. Without it, the hand-to-mouth system would, be almost impossible. With it, money is forthcoming when wanted for a new device ; the Governor's road is smoothed ; and the colony adds another item to its debt without a struggle. How this is done in practice may be seen from the correspondence relating to the Finance of the War, which we reprint from late Parliamentary papers in another column. The commissariat chest is the British Treasury abroad. Its primary use is to pay her Majesty's troops, and to discharge other military liabilities in the place where it is stationed; but its services are extended, under the name of the Treasury chest, to all Imperial purposes. The governors of colonies have been permitted,, in cases of emergency, to direct payments, on their own responsibility, out of this chest, of sums of money for objects of Imperial concern, for which no provision may have been made and no instructions issued from head-quarters. The commissariat chest in New Zealand, which is under the charge of a very prudent officer, has often been drawn upon in this way; and Mr. Commissary-General Jones has not unfrequently raised the question whether the sums drawn through him have really been required, for cases of emergency and objects of Imperial concern. But it is not for a Commissary of whatever rank to question the opinion of a Governor; and the drafts became so large at last that a special trust to keep the purse-strings tight has somewhat recently been confided by her- Majesty's Government to the Lieutenant-General commanding. The prudent Commissary has been reinforced by a stern Commander-in-chief; but even so, as the story is told by the correspondence before us, the Governor has prevailed against them both, and got some more money. No doubt a great part of the story is known to members of the Assembly, for the eyents occurred about the time of the last session; but it may be well to recall the facts. In August, last year, when the invasion of the Waikato was commencing, the commissariat began to advance money a t the rate of £12,000 per month. This was to continue till the meeting of the Assembly, when the advances were to be met out of other funds to be provided by that body. But £12,000 a month goes 110 way in war; and by the third month, October, a loan of £100,000 was urgently required. In a very simple and easy way Mr. Reader Wood asked the commissiariat to oblige the Government : they would probably be able to repay the money in three months. But Mr. Header Wood did not possess the " open sesame' for the commissariat chest., Mr. Jones, the prudent, officer, father thought the money was wauted for colonial purposes, did not see anything said about the emergency of the case, and could not accept a mere probability of repayment as a satisfactory basis for the loan. He declined to make the advance. But an abler magician than Mr. Reader Wood was at hand, to whom the unlocking 'of the chest had never given any trouble. Sir George Grey wrote a few lines to the General, telling him that the case was one of Emergency, the safety of her Majesty's possessions was endangered, and though ; he wanted less than £100,000, he should, be content with taking £150,000. We do not know what weight the General' attached to the last argument, but we must presume that he felt the force of the first, coming from a Governor's mouth; aud Sir George got the money he wanted, once more, and for the last time.

Most probably the Governor's favourite resource is now closed to him. He has been more fortunate than other Governors, or more reckless; but he must have exhausted the liberality of the Imperial Treasury by this time. When the arrangement which began in August, 1868, for an advance of £12,000 a month, was first reported, that comparatively small draft seenis to have excited the displeasure of the Home Government. The Duke of Newcastle, then Colonial Secretary, wrote quickly to the Governor, telling hiui that the matter required explanation; he ought to have called the Assembly and made proper money provision for the wants of the time; or if he could not do that, then he ought to have begged, borrowed, or stolen from the provinces. "Were there, he asked, no provincial funds which could have been laid under contribution ? The emergency was that of the colony; if money were urgently required, why ask it from the home country, instead of taking it from colonial resources, especially from those provinces nearest to or most concerned in the war? Clearly the Imperial Treasury is of opinion that the waste lands of the colony should be cast into the fire before the taxpayers of Great Britain are drawn upon. And though much is to be said on the side of the colony, it is not certain," lookiug nt the matter from the English point of view, that the argument of the Duke of Newcastle it not strong onough to be iusisted upon before long. We shall find out, then, what it

is to go to war, if we have not found it out Cardwell was probably right, in fact, when-he said that no drafts on the commissariat would be permitted after the close of last year. If so, and supposing that the sums then so drawn for the present war amounted to £180,000, of which the particulars are given us, there would remain a sum of about £000,000 to, make up what we may cal 1 the whole colonial extraordinary expenditure on account of the war, to the present time. Where has this great sum come fi»,mjL, To whom do we owe it i Whst is our chance of paying it ? And how are we to carry on the war at this rate of expenditure for the future ?