THE SPECTEMUR AGENDO. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1875.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4407, 29 December 1875, Page 2

THE SPECTEMUR AGENDO. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1875.

We have received.from the New South "Wales Government a copy of the financial statement of the Colonial Secretary (acting for the Colonial Treasurer), and have perused it with great interest, as exhibiting the splendid results of a freetrade policy and economical administration combined. The accumulated surpluses of the last three years amount to the enormous sum of £1,901,690, of which £528,989 is the surplus for the year 1875, and £895,055 is brought forward from the previous year. This great surplus is invested partly on fixed deposits in the various banks, and partly left aa ordinary deposits, while £815,000 has been advanced for purposes for which loans are authorised, but which has not yet been found necessary to negotiate. It is proposed to pay off from the cash in hand a sum of 434,200, being the amount of a loan falling due on Ist January, 1876, and £301,600 falling due in July. After paying these debentures and other charges, the colony of New South Wales will have £1,100,000 to its credit available for any purpose that may hereafter be decided.

In pursuance of the policy which has been for the last few years steadily pursued by New South Wales, its Customs tariff will be still further simplified by abolishing duties on 23 enumerated articles. The total amount of these duties is only £30,118, but the hindrance to trade which they represent will make the belief appreciably felt. The tariff will now comprise only 35 enumerated articles en which the duties are all levied at fixed rates per gallon, per cwt., or per pound. The ad valorem duties are entirely abolished, and those levied instead are far from excessive. Spirits pay 10s.; cigars, 25.; manufactured tobacco, 2s. 3d. ; unmanfactured, Is. 6d. ; coffee and tea, 3d. ; raw sugar, ss. ; and refined, 6s. Bd. Nails and galvanised iron, £40 per ton ; iron wire, saltpetre, and soda crystals, £20; and rice, £60. The latter, we presume, is considered the readiest way of taxing the Chinese, for whom the duty on opium of 10s. per lb. must be also levied. The Treasuer considers that further reductions may be made next year, but for the present ia content with the remission of the stamp tax, which has been allowed to lapse without renewal. The taxation of the colony through the Customs and Excise, will be only £1,040,000. The gold duty will yield £17,400. The total revenue swells up to £4,166,900 of which £675,000 is from railway receipts, and nearly two millions from land revenue. The taxation, properly so-called, may therefore be considered extremely light for a population of 600,000 persons. With reference to the land revenue tho most noticeable feature is its steady increase during the last three years—an increase to which much of the present financial prosperity of the colony is clearly due. Tho sales for 1874 and 1875 were £1,100,000 and £1,638,662 respectively. Those for 1876 are estimated at £1,545,000. The interest and rents paid for land sold on the deferred payment system, in addition to the receipts from " sales," were £325,938 and £341,798 respectively for the years 1874 and 1875. The estimated amount for 1876 is £378,500. The Colonial Secretary dwells with justifiable pride on these figures and considers them ample justification for the proposal of a new loan of £3,300,000 to extend the railway system and open up a further portion of the 175,000,0000f acres the colony still has for sale. The plans and specifications of the proposed lines are laid in detail before the House, with traffic estimates to shew the probability of their paying or nearly paying the interest on the outlay. The public debt of the colony at the end of 1875 will be £11,473,437 against which credit is fairly taken for the £1,424,000 cash in hand, and the large sum of £4,828,080 due for the balance of land sold on deferred payments and which balance is being paid up in annual instalments at the rate we have already quoted.

There are a few points of importance in which this financial statement differs very much from those of our own Treasurer's, and to which attention could with advantage be directed. The practice, for example, of borrowing no money unless for specified works, of which full particulars ia detail are placed before the House is one well worthy of imitation It has been asked," says the Sydney Colonial Treasurer, " why we have made no provision for a railway to Newcastle." Surveys are being carried out, he tells the House, and adds, "you cannot make provision on estimates until you ascertain the cost." Thus iilussrating a point to which we have often taken exception in the practice of our own Assembly. Despite their large gross return of £675,000, and the careful forethought with which they have been undertaken, the railways of New South Wales yield only a net revenue of £317,000, and require to be supplemented by £100,000 from the land revenue of the colony to pay interest on their cost. It is noteworthy to see the readiness with which the doctrine of charging this to the land revenue is accepted. The unfairness of paying interest on such works from the taxation of the people is recognised, and the doctrine of "local expenditure of land revenue," so persistently followed with us, is not for one moment admitted. The land ia the property of the colony, and, when sold, the proceeds should be spent by the colony. The claims of the purchasers to have it partly returned to them by spending it in the district, we have held repeatedly to be opposed to common sense and justice and to lie at the bottom of much of our difficulties in Hew Zealand. The enormous land revenue of New South. Wales is expended for the benefit of the whole community and not fo; that of any particular section or district. Nor does the jealousy of the cities appear to be so strong in New South Wales a3 in our own colony. The " outdistricts" there, though the colony is of so much greater extent, -work more haxmpniously with the cities. Much of this is probably due to the absence of the singular doctrine of localising the land fund which has obtained among ourselves. Much must also be due to the position of Sydney with reference to the rest of the colony. All railways, all roads, radiate from Sydney and converge to it. It ia

Jhe centre -of life, .of politics; ■■ of.-.com-merce, of society for;the entire present colony. It was not so for Victoria or for Queenland and it lost : them both in the absence of some such political system aa that which has kept together our NewZealand Battlements in the past. Even now the contrast between New South Wales, with its carefully prepared projects of railways all beginning and ending with Sydney, andour own colony with its railways beginning at a dozen different points and running in a dozen different directions, is one that will suggest matter for serious reflection to the thoughtful politician. It illustrates forcibly the difference in the respective physical characters of the two colonies, and the futility of applying to one the political system which is quite suitable to the other, now that the territories of Queensland and Victoria have I been so dealt with that they, too, can be ! governed from their respective natural ; centres. "With her vast resources, free I trade policy and careful finance, New South Wales has doubtless a splendid future before her, and is rapidly advancing to the first position in commerce and influence in the Australasian world.

Whilst we are enjoying the festivities of the season in Auckland, it is only right that we should give even more than a passing thought to the condition of the miners at the Thames, ■where this present season has been ushered in under circumstances more sad and gloomy than before known, since that field ha 3 been opened. A miner who has had good opportunities of becoming aware of the facts, assures ns that matters are much more serious than the people of Auckland seem to be aware of. He states that the closing up of the Bright Smile, Queen of Beauty, City of London and adjoining mines, has thrown out of employment at least 1000 miners, the majority of whom are married men with families ; add to the above number at least 500 additional miners idle on account of the unproductivenec<i of other mines, we have a total of 1500 men out of work. Allowing that 500 out of the above total have some means, we then find that there remains 1000 miners out of work, penniless, and depending upon the above for support, are at least 1000 women and children, making in all 2000 souls without the means of livelioood. These are the statements we have received, and even supposing that the figures are somewhat over the mark, there can be no doubt at all that there must be a large amount of suffering at the present time at the Thames. The question is, what can be done to alleviate it? Hemmed in by a range of mountains and an unopened back country, there is no escape for the unfortunate miners at the Thames. Under similar circumstances in Australia the population of a depressed goldfield pack up their bag and baggage and start off for fresh fields and pastures new, enabled to do bo on account of the ranges of country open to the traveller. We think that in the circumstances the General and Provincial Governments might co-operate, and commence some extensive works in road making, and give employment to n large number of men. If the Bright Smile pumps are started again at once, in a few weeks the Waio Karaka mines will be able to take on meD, and the men employed on the publio works might then be lessened in number. Something ought to be done at once.

Octr Australian telegrams inform us of an important discovery in the ground of the dunes Company, where a rich gold-bearing reef has been found at a depth of 1000 feet. The discovery is of much more than local interest. It has been argued by scientific men —by so great an authority as Sir Roderick Murchison amongst others—that gold-bearing reefs became poorer as a low depth was reached, and although Sir Roderrick has modified his opinion of late years, it has not yet been satisfactorily shewn that it is entirely erroneous, and that depth ha> no relation to auriferous qualities. For us the subject has a profound practical interest in respect to the occurrence of gold at deep levels at the Thames. The shaft of the Pumping Association is now down to a depth of GSO feet. Below 600 feet, quartz leaders of small size have been cut through, and have been found to contain gold, and, in fact, the " country" below COO feet is regarded by miners as being more encouraging for the prospect of gold than it was between 400 and 600 feet. The Bright Smile shaft, on the WaioKaraka is about 600 feet in depth. With such discoveries before our eyes as that of the Climes Company, there is no reason for despairing in regard to the Thames, but probably wo shall want some more immediate encouragement before we are able to get to a depth of 1000 feet. The telegram states that this is the deepest gold-bearing reef in the colony; we were under the impression that auriferous quartz had been obtained at Pleasant Creek at about 1400 feet.