THE NELSON EXAMINER. Saturday, November 18, 1854.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIII, 18 November 1854, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Saturday, November 18, 1854.

Journals become more necessary as men become more equal and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to strar* liberty: they maintain civilisation.

Dc Tocao«viLL». Of Dsmocrscy in America, toI. t., p. 380,

Our readers will remember that one of the chief causes which led the FitzGerald Ministry to insist upon the immediate adoption of a full responsible Government for the colony, was the mistrust which the House of Representatives showed towards tbe old Government officials, in consequence of the deranged state of tbe finances of the colony, as exhibited to a committee appointed to investigate the subject. In the speech delivered by hia Excellency the Officer administering the Government at the opening of tbe Assembly, rathe 1 a flattering statement was made in our fir,- g..

cial condition, but subsequent inquiry led to the disclosure that the statement made by his Excellency on the occasion referred to was wholly fallacious, and that so far from the Government having in hand a large available balance, the Financial Committee, appointed by the House of Representatives, found, most unexpectedly, that a large debt hung over the colony, with which they were previously wholly unacquainted.

It is not however of this debt that we are now about to complain, because, if contracted for just purposes, it should be justly borne and justly paid; but what we do complain of is, that the people are kept in nearly total ignorance of the financial condition of the colony, and that a statement of the public expenditure is either withheld altogether from us, or is published in such a way as to afford little or no information. From the partial investigation made by the Financial Committee, it appeared that Sir George Grey had disbursed the Parliamentary Grant, year by year, at his pleasure, and there was not an officer of the Executive who could give a tittle of information as to where and how the money had been expended. It seems, as far as can now be ascertained, that the £20,000, £30,000, and even £50,000 voted the colony by the liberality of the British Parliament was no more thought to be public money than if it had been a part of Sir George's private fortune, and neither the Colonial Treasurer nor Auditor could enlighten the Committee as to its expenditure. Here however Sir George Grey stopped. If he held himself irresponsible to the colony in dealing with the Parliamentary Grant, he published with tolerable promptitude quarterly statements of the receipts and expenditure of money raised within these islands, so that as far as our own contributions to his Government went, we could always ascertain pretty well what they were and how the money had been disposed of. Since Sir George Grey left the colony, for some reason, which it is difficult to understand, the publication of the accounts of the General Government has ceased. On the principle of throwing a tub to a whale, we have had the old accounts published over again in a variety of new shapes, but no statement whatever of the revenue and expenditure of the General Government since the end of September, 1853, has yet been made public. It was doubtlessly tbe duty of the House of Representatives, while sitting, to have seen that the public finances were properly kept and properly accounted for, and notwithstanding the peculiar position in which the House was placed, we cannot altogether absolve it from blame in this matter. Instead of tying up as much as possible, consistent with a due regard to public requirements, the public purse from the hands of the present irresponsible Government, our representatives appear to have given the Executive large additional means.

Previous to the meeting of the Assembly, tbe whole of the land fund (except the proportion deducted for the New Zealand Company's debt) and two- thirds of the Customs' duties were available in the Province ; but now one half of the net proceeds of both Land and Customs' Revenue, in all the Provinces, is to be forwarded to Auckland for the use of the General Government. We do not hesitate to characterize this abstraction of our land fund as an act of spoliation; and we cannot conceive how the Southern representatives suffered the Auckland Government to acquire tbe power of so victimising their constituents. What with the expenses of the department, the New Zealand Company's debt, and tbe Government moiety, the amount of the land fund left us, available for emigration and public works, will, we fear, be very small. The cry for the first meeting of tbe Assembly was loud, but the cry for the second meeting will, we think, be not less urgent.