THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12585, 21 August 1901, Page 4

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

The publication of the accounts for tha June quarter makes it harder than ever to understand why the Premier should have told the West Coast deputation the other day that he had the greatest •difficulty in making both ends meet in framing hi? estimates fear the current year. The revenue during, the quainter, •w'Midh is admittedly the worst of the whole year, appears to have kept up in a) most satisfactory way, and the total for the three months exceeds that for the correspradiiing period of 19001901 by no less a sum than £26,418. lb will ha remembered that in the Financial Statement Mr Seddoni estimated that the revenue for the year would decline by a little more thorn £13,000, but it now seems likely that instead' of this antteip'a'tdiooi being fulfilled there will be a veay oonsiid'exabl© increase to report next March. It is, of course, too early to prophesy with any degree of certainty, but with the railways realising in the first quarter £35,000 of the increase of £39,000 predicted for the whole year, and witilh the Post Office, beer duty and miscellaneous items all inaking substantial contributions towards tho same caw, it is pretty safe to say that the Premier is again on a fair way to a comfortable surplus. He estimated that the total increase in the 'beer duty would be £829, but in three months it has reached £1863, and l we can at present see. no rea&iora why it should not continue to grow. Probably when Mr Seddon took the West Coast deputation into his confidence he intended to refer only to tlie Public Works Fund, which is certainly low enough to cause its custodian some genuine anxiety. We can hardly believe that he deliberately misrepresented the condition of the colony's finances for the purpose of getting rid! of a trouible'Somo application for adlditionaSl expenditure. At 'the same time wo are inclined to agree with, Mr Graham, the member for Nelson, that there is rcoau for improvement in some of the .methods practised at the Treasury. The accounts for the June quarter, for instance., which were published . only yesterday, ought to (have betar available at least a month. ago. If they had been placed before the public then, as they should have been, a gocd deal of unnecessary anxiety would have been prevented, and although the Premier would have lost "the opportunity to> make his little jest at the expense of tflio merchants who cleared their goods in anticipation of a rise in the Customs duties, he would have escaped the suspicion of keeping then* in ignorance for his own purposes. Then the system of keeping the accounts seems a little worse, if anything, than it was a decade ago. The debate in the 1 'House of Representatives last night on the Advances to Settlers Bill showed! some of the distrust that has been occasioned by the mysterious transfer of money from one Department to another. If] a loan is required for making advances to settlers it ought to b 3 easy enough to show the position without inviting the criticism that was offered by Captain Russell and the member for Riccarton. What is wanted is perfect candour on the part of the Government, and with such a majority as (he has at his back Mr Seddon has no excuse for clinging 'to the dubious ways of his Conservative predecessors.