The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 22, 1868.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1306, 22 January 1868, Page 2

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 22, 1868.

SI'ECTEUUH. AGENDO. " Give every man thine car, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all,—To thine own self be true Anil it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

A statement of assets and liabilities of the Province for the present year and of proposed expenditure for the present half-year ending June 30, 186S, was yesterday laid on the table of the Provincial Council, and will be found in another column. The total assets of the Province are estimated to yield £51,07S lis. 6d. The principal items are £18,750 expected from the General Government, being three quarterly payments on account of the sum to be handed over to the Province ; £3,G4S 3s. 4d., sums advanced on account of the General Government ; £9,0C0, Provincial Bevenue; £8,000, interest and sinking fund on loan to harbour trust, city of Auckland, &c. ; £3,189, city of Auckland, for interest and sinking fund; £4,500 for gold export duty ; aud pilotage and harbour dues, £1,900. The item railway plant sold, £590 16s. 2d., is in reality a part of the stock of the railway, and therefore ought not in strictness to be 1 reckoned as revenue ; it is, in fact, a part of the loan, and ought to bo kept distinct. The repayment of assisted passages, £500, we look upon as a very doubtful asset, and we are by no meaus certain, that the interest and sinking fund due to the Province I will be paid in full. In round numbers the income and the assets in this statement equal the total of the two statements placed before the Council on previous occasions. The notable difference is the item of £4,500 for gold revenue. It is wholly impossible to say whether such an amount will be realized or not. The calculation is evidently based on the assumption that 3,000 ounces of gold will bo exported on the average for ! each month. ¥c hope it may be more than realized. Looking altogether'at the income and the assets, we are inclined to believe they are assumed to be considerably greater than they will prove to be in reality. The amount of cash in Bank of New Zealand on Loan Account, is £2,400, and there is a sum of £8,250 put down for sinking fund and loan for three quarters. After deducting this amount, aud £6,800 for liabilities, for works under contract, immigration. &c, the net balance remaining, is put down at £30,028, lis 6d. But the repayment of tho sum taken from the Loan last year is evidently not calculated upon. We have been informed before that this amounted to £23,000, and were it repaid, the nominal balance of assets over liabilities would be very greatly diminished. Assuming that tho £5,250 referred to above is a portion of thiß £23,000, then the balance would be £21.278 for appropriation for the year, presuming that the

customs revenue improved, or the charges against the province were so reduced as to enable the Customs revenue to pay the G-eneral Government the amounts due to them out of Provincial revenue. But for one month named, that revenue was deficient at the.rate.of £6000 a year nearly, and consequently if it remained at that sum, or did not improve, we cannot calculate upon having the amount to expend that is assumed in the statement to which we are referring, for we can .hardly expect that the : G-eneral Government will be prepared to reduce expenditure to that extent. However, we sincerely . trust that the . most sanguine expectations as to income may be realised. Turning from the assets and income to the proposed expenditure for the half-year, and comparing it "with the expenditure for the last year, we see indeed a vast difference. The total proposed expenditure for the halfyear is £15,051 18s. 5d., or at the raie of £30,102 a-year, while last year it was some £55,500, or a long way towards being double the amount of the present year v There is nothing put down in the statement for the Waste Lands Department. This may be included in the Executive, or lands and roads may include the department. The Public Works Department, again, is heard i of no longer,-while last year it cost £2094, unless, indeed, lands and roads is a synonymous term with it. We strenuously advocated a reduction in this department last year, but the present apostles of economy were then loudest in their demands for extravagance. Tet we should like any of them to tell us what work there has been done for the expenditure of £2094 which will not be done without that expenditure. What is now done could just as easily have been done then, and the Province would have suffered no evil in consequence of that expense being saved. But the present economists insisted upon the necessity of the expenditure named. The Superintendent's, Provincial Secretary's, and Provincial Treasurer's Office, together -with the Provincial Solicitor, cost £2575 last year, the proposed expenditure for the present, under the name Executive, is £1563, or £1000 less. The next item, police, cost £S7S7 in ISG7 ; the proposal is to spend £1500 on this item for the half year, or at the rate of £3000 a year, a little over one-third of last year's expenditure. There is no greatly altered circumstances, except our poverty, which can enable us to do with oue-tliird the money for police that we could a year ago. The gaol cost £5675 last Year, the pro7)osed expenditure for the present half year "is £2000, or £1000 a year. Now, wo see no difficulty in reducing the expenditure on the gaol very considerably, but this idea strikes one, —if £2000 will suffice to clothe and feed, and doctor an average of about 200 prisoners for half a year, and pay a gaoler, wardens, a matron, and so forth, how many men are to be kept on the police force, and what is to be their rate of pay ? The proportion of expenditure seems out of proportion when compared with the objects to be respectively provided forThe Hospital and Lunatic Asylum expenditure is reduced from £3156 and £2046 respectively to £2000 a-year, grant in aid, and £1000 a year. How the expenditure on these establishments can be reduced so much is more than we can tell. But the assumption w r ould be that if the present sum is enough, the past sum has been very greatly too much, and there must have been extravagance somewhere. The Inspector of Sheep and the Board of Education have disappeared from the esti-, m ites in company with the Eoads and Works and Waste Lauds Department. There is merely a proposal to pay arrears to teachers due December 31st last.

Harbours -which cost £54*73 in 1867 are to cost at the rate'of £3200 in 186 S. We Lave before pointed out the necessity for veryconsiderable reduction in this department. With a consolidation of offices, and a vastlydiminished trade, great saving can easily be made in it.

The sick and destitute had £4000 appropriated for them last year ; the proposition is to set apart £750 for the present halfyear. We have no doubt but that under the present intelligent and active relieving officer £1500 for the present year will yield as much relief to the really suffering poor, as did more than twice that amount under previous management, or mismanagement, and the gross extravagance and corruption that was practised under it. We may also fairly hope that the Thames gold-field will very considerably reduce the presure ou the funds for the i-elief of the sick and destitute. The railway and the Great South Eoad no longer figure on the estimates, and we trust they will not do so for some time to come. It is quite clear that if the present six months can be carried on with the proposed expenditure, the province will have given a very complete answer to those who say the provinces would not reduce, ab least so far as Auckland is concerned, and hence that the G-eneral Government would not do so. The experience obtained in our poverty may coavince us that we can cany ou provincial institutions without cosily establishments, which have, more than anything else, broughb provincial institutions into contempt.