MR STAFFORD'S FINANCE.

North Otago Times, Volume V, Issue 105, 22 February 1866, Page 1 (Supplement)

MR STAFFORD'S FINANCE.

The following letter has been placed in our (" Press") hands for publication: — To the Honorable E. W. Stafford, Colonial Secretary. Dear Sir, — I observe, in the report of your speech at Nelson* that you charge me with having wilfully misrepresented your financial appropriations last session, and with having attempted to fix on you the responsibility for the unauthorised expenditure incurred by the late Government. I beg to assure you that I never did impute to you any responsibility on account of the expenditure incurred by the late Government. What I did, and do mean to insist on is, that you are misleading the public into the belief that your scheme of finance will warrant you in paying over three-eighths of the Customs' Revenue to the Provinces. ! The charges on the ordinary revenue fixed by law and unalterable, except by Act of the Legislature, are in round figures as follows : — Civil List, settled by the Civil List Act ... £27,500 Permanent Charges, under Loan Acts, &c. ... 202,000 Appreciations for the Service of the year 1865-66, under the Appropriation Act, 1865 — ... 370,000 Unauthorised expenditure of former years, charged by the Appropriation Act on the tho ordinary revenue ... ... ... 167,000 £766,500 The annual revenue for the current year may be estimated at L900.000, of which the Customs may be taken at L78O,OOO. Applying to these data the rules laid down by the Surplus Revenue Act, 1858, you will find that the amount available for the Province is, in round figures, LI 33,000, being somewhat less than three -sixteenths of the Customs' Revenue. When, therefore, you state that you are actually paying over three-eighths of the Customs' Revenue to the Provinces, equal to L290,000, you disclose the alarming fact that you are incurring an expenditure, not authorised by law, of upwards of LI 50,000 beyond the ordinary revenue. The debt which

you are thus incurring must obviously either be refunded by the Provinces, or provided for by a new loan. I must observe that if the Comptroller's Act of last session had been brought into operation, the irregularity which I have pointed out could not have occurred. I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully, Henry SeweiiI,. Christchurch, 10th February, 1866. P.S. — I shall publish this letter as a reply to your speech.