The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, FEB. 8, 1879.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5603, 8 February 1879, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, FEB. 8, 1879.

The end of the last calendar year happens to ho a very convenient halting place at which to stop and consider the state of the Colonial Revenue. That date is. always a half-way house in the current financial year, hut in the present financial year it marks a distinct epoch—the end of one,, and the commencement of another fiscal system. We change/as it were, the horses of the coach. A reduction of indirect taxes takes effect on that date, .and is replaced by the direct taxation of land. 1 That cardinal change must be borne in, mind when we look at the statement, just published in the New Zealand Gazette, of the receipts and expenditure of the Public Account up to the end of: December last, if we wish to found on that statement and the one for. the proceding quarter any calculation as to the probable receipts, for the remaining half of this financial year. In fact, any such attempt would only confuse and mislead/ The principal object, of course, ofeh consideration of these returns is to test the buoyancy of the current revenue, .and to ascertain, as far as practicable, how far thp anticipated ways and means of the Colonial Treasurer will bo realised. We m fy ®«d®ly assume as a fact.; that 1 the appropriations—we are now excluding from consideration expenditure oht of < loans—will, on the whole, be fully spent. The state, therefore, of the revenue, as it exceeds, or falls short of that expenditure, practically indicates' whether we shall have at the end of the

wsarptorw » deM The matter realty resolves itself into the question whether the actual receipts are hibre or lets thian those estimated by the Colonial Treasurer. As. there; is ih.the middle of the present financial year a solution of continuity in the. sources of supply* the simplest and surest inodes of ascertaining* so far as we can, what we want to know is to consider the past half-year by itself, and to compare its actual receipts under eapo head with half the respective amounts estimated for the whole year by the Colonial Treasurer. We are able to,do this without reference to the fiscal changes ■ effected in the course of the session, for in his financial Statement the Colonial Treasurer made an esti* mate without .taking such alterations into account. j The following table will show at a glance the state of the revenue fqr thb half-year ending Dec. . 31. The ; estij mates are in each case one half of in the Treasurer’s Statement: — ActualE»tinmt«,lnor«Me.D«- ■ r” ■ - >.floienoyi asrs KST::: Telegraphic ... 88,988 ,55*222- ■ , „J JudloM... 21,031 25,000 3.863 Land Transfer... 81,472 I*so 5.233 J Begietradon, 40. 13.013 13,378 .4£Bt Marina ... 12.041 841 loral MUoalloneoua ... 21,120- 33,500 1^38(1 Territorial 7X1,875’ SI4JBBB 83,837 r | is?, Soiplus of inereaee ... . ’23,0481 In considering this result, with a view! to estimating the probabilities of the; second half of the year, it. will be well; to bear in mind" that the yield of territorial revenue is, not- likely to attain daring period! thb proportions it rreaohed ;in the first. - But 1 against any probable ’deficiency on that score, th^e as we showed on, Thrmsday, bid fair to of-the year or estimatebfje7Bl2. thisV ; Witiitiie decrease pf the first 1 half of thb year- recouped, viz j— r f|4s,47ff, will represent an asset on the railway acconnt, available- probably at the mid of the year, of £53,287. - Then tiisre|s the postal deficiency, which abb is mbre apparent than real, as it has been stated on good authority that it arises from exceptional causes in connection with the Postal Accounts, and from payments duo to the Post Office for. the period~not:rbeing"madetUl'B{terwards. The second half of the year may therefore be Ipoked upon as likely to recoup the first half’s deficiency under this head of £13,092. ; Lastly, there is the miscellaneous deficiency of £12,38$ which will probably be recouped, as. the receipts are most irregular, the September quarter having yielded £12,232, and the next only £6452. These ; figures give us an expectation of ;£78,759-as likely to be received at the end of the current half-year over and above the estimates for that period;

The Government have no reason to .be dissatisfied with the flow of revenue during the first , half of the current financial year. The Customs and the Land Fund bare more than sustained the expectations of the Financial Statement; and, when the allowances to which we have referred in connexion with the railways are taken into consideration, it may bo said that the Colonial Treasurer’s estimate of their proceeds during the whole year is not too sanguine. The Stamp Duties, another considerable source of revenue, are not likely to fall below the estimate for the year. A review of these figures also shows that the state of the Colony has been generally prosperous. But the Government must not shut their eyes to the fact that there are financial shoals aheacL We have let go the rope of a large part of indirect taxation, in the shape of Customs’ duties; and we have not properly got hold of the rope of the Land Tax. During the present half-year the remissions that have been made in the Customs will probably create a. loss at' the end of June next of at least £50,000 after allowance for increased consumpr tion owing to cheaper prices We do not wish to be constantly predicting sinister things on the present system of collecting the Land Tax, bat every day more and more shows the probability of its being for this year a financial failure. We doubt whether the Colonial Treasurer will be able to show at the end of June next that the tax has done much; more than pay the cost of its collection.- We shall Jbe agreeably surprised if. the result is otherwise. But independently of the transition betweenthe two systems of taxation, we cannot' expect to have uninterrupted Colonial prosperity. There are sighs around us of retrenchment in private expenditure ; and that retrenchment must . react unfavourably on the revenue. The present forecast of finance is one which .demands the utmost care and watchfulness on the part of the Government.

Economy in hospital management is an excellent thing. For obvious reasons the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board hhye reason to be Satisfied with the savings they hare made during the last 1 more particularly considering the rate of the reduction effected. The expenditure for each of the last three half-years has been, wo observe, from the accounts published by the Board, respectively £2744, £2571, £2273. If Sj fourth half-year had been given- 1 — the phe enduig June 80, 1877 the total saving for the last y4ar .could have been seen at a I roughly by doubling the first half-year i? at with the 4dded, tables of the two laat half-years In this way the saving for the year aypeara as £644, which is a spbatahtial cost iMs than the first by £298, and the tinrd less than ibe second by £173 • »ud> it«> waiter provement is progressive Of a «r*‘ a, “ “fi* 1 * ?“"* to aad orl, temporary reduction., Hbwe ’**,,.*«*'' to Vi< pe,«£_.“?*■ «W. a ration. Tl>=. Mt Viat ol 1 !.

new managements pot down as a saving o£ fonrpenceJhalfpenny per day for ' each patient. , ■ J While congratulating the Board on ; the result of their year’s labours, weblmnot refrain from expressing; a hope, that 1 too much stress will not be laid : upon economy. The commercial as- I peot of a question is not necessarily i always the highest. In Hospital management it never is. Economy is of 1 coarse an indispensable condition, but it has its place amongst the otbef conditions of management. The late revelations at the Timaru Hospital show that the story of the man who persisted in practising a progressive system of economy on his ; horse until the animal died, and which was invented for the sake of a fine moral, is apt to be lost sight of. Economy seenis to have been practised in that Hospital until the attendants were overworked, and tumble, -to do their duty. The Strait-jacket, ■ seems ;to : have become a useful unpaid servant, One , that consumed no rations, that made no i inroads on medical comforts,*- and swelled no retnras to provoke the; hostile criticism of/'ofiMal If the evidence of the attendants, given! at the late inquiry. Can he depended; apon, the attendants were overworked. ThC. claims of economy must, in the; matterof ■ way at Txmaru. There is nothing to show that, economy has. been pushed at’ Christchurch to a Vicious extent. l Quite. the contrary. But it must be borne, in mind; .that the pursuit;Ofi economy; .becomes, in: a higher de-; ,-gree than *' any . other, -pursuit, engreseingi—lts effect on* the official mind is when the Ipureuit isunehecked, something' akin: ' Imitators oI Hume found out by bitter ,feacperiencothat armies were, not mere arrays of figures, to be mataipnlatedafc winforpurposesolretrenchment, and that navies were something more than itggregsies of to be reduced at any price. There are minds which see in .the mere existence of a column of figures a reason for feeling inclined to cat down. The bheck against this abase of. economy is local management-s assiatbd and eaxlightened by expetftb-who can point out where economyenda and cheese-paring begins; who know when the spirit : ,qf thrift must give way to the spirit of liberality. Such a form of management is the' Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. We hope-the Board will continue to economise, and never begin to give.‘to economy a Value that ia out of proper tion,to its importance.

Somsbody has been fishing for the : trout fishers. They seem to be hooked, but it is hard to believe that they Trill * everbe landed. - The sport they are sure to give will, however; be interesting to watch. The fisher is Colonel Whiti more, and the hook he has struck the , fishers with is a proclamation by the .Governor of regulations under the Authority of the Salmon and Trout Act, 1887, which are duly set out in the Gazette of Jan. 30 last as additional regulations. The first of these provides that “if any person shall by any means take or catch any salmon or trout in any stream, river, or tidal water, he shall forthwith return, such salmon or trout alive to the stream, from which the same was taken.” This he is to do under a penalty of such sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, as the Justices imposing it may think fit. The second Clause provides that no person holding a license under, the previous regulations ■ < —those to which the newly proclaimed ones are additional—shall he exempt from the operation, of the new regulations. The third clause ordains that the new regulations are to be read as part of the old ones. And this is all. How this will affect the gentlenien who have paid fees to. the Acclimatisation Society for licenses will be a nice question for the lawyers. Regulation No. 2 certainly destroys their license. Having paid for the licenses, they will, if Regulation No. 2 is the only thing .to be considered, now have the pleasure 1 of paying anything up to £IOO every time they choose to ttse their licenses. Regulation No. 2 and the “gentle art” are at variance. Regulation No, 3 gives, on the other hand, some hope to the license-holders, if not to upset Regulation No. 2, at least to reuse one of those legal questions that wears the air of a hopeless conundrum. . That question is:— If Regulation No. 3 provides that the new regulations are to he readaa part of the old, how can the . new regulations revoke the licenses of which they themselves in their capacity as “part” of the old have authorised the granting P , If this is not the way out of the difficulty, there is another. The Acclimatisation Society can return the money for the licenses and issue fresh ones, for the new Regulations do not abolish licenses; neither do they abolish anybody’s power of granting them. Neither of these courses reoomspud themselves, , for the first is a hopeless quibble, and the other is quite out of the question. The third alternative would be to ask the Governor to excise the word “trout” from the proclamation. As the new regulations were probably devised to prevent salmon fishing, such a course would make, the new regulations just what they were in-