THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1882.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6422, 17 June 1882, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1882.

Last night the Colonial Treasurer, tho [Bon. Major Atkinson, was so far restored to health as to be able to deliver his financial statement. The statement is not ornamented with any of those brilliant suggestions which sometimes so enlivened similar statements by Sir Julius Vogel, and was by some regarded as dry and dreary. Major Atkinson confined himself to the business before him. Ho showed that the rumour frequently circulated of late that the revenue of tbe. colony had exhibited a considerable increase during the past year was fully justified. The revenue was found to be £190,520 in excess of the estimate, and the expenditure was less than the estimate by £49,759. The hour at which the message was finished prevents us reviewing it this.morning at length, and we shall only notice some of the leading features of the speech. In the ensuing year, 1882-83, he estimated that the ordinary revenue, exclusive of land sales, would amount to £3,393,500, which, with the balance on hand, would make £3,597,183. The estimated expenditure he put down at £3,478,639, leaving .an estimated surplus of ■ £118,54=4. The total debt of :the colony is stated to 0e£29,940,711; but, as the sinking fund has accumulated to £2,226,418, the net colonial debt is £27,680,293. The Government have recommended a new loan, but . not for the amount which was generally anticipated. The sum is fixed at £3,000,000, to be expended upon works to be agreed upon at a rate of not more than £1,000,000 per annum. A scheme of local government is promised, and a permanent method of maintaining the hospitals and charitable institutions is foreshadowed. For the current year, those institutions will be provided for by State aid and private benevolence. A national schemeof assurance is proposed, and measures bearing on the subject are.promised. Tho Colonial Treasurer believes that such a scheme as he proposes will lay the foundation of permanent relief to the distressed and needy without the imposition of a poor law, a measure to which he expressed a strong dislike. As to the incidence of taxation, he thinks the burthens imposed upon the different sections of the community, taken as classes, is upon the whole fair, and leaves'little to be desired. He admits that there fire individual exceptions, but such exceptions are to be found in all the classes, in the propertied as well as in the industrial classes. The late census affords him material to make the comparison he has done. The people of the colony are divided into three classes—the industrial class, consisting of 312,436 individuals, exclusive of 11,903 domestic female servants; the intermediate class, consisting of 96,260 individuals ; and the property class, consisting of G8,445 individuals. The average rate of taxation each bears is stated, and he does not see his way to make any improvement in this respect. There is to be no remission in taxation, the proposed loan preventing any steps in this direction being taken. Reference is also made to the general prosperity of the people in the colony, which is proved by the large deposits in the Savings Banks, and the provident habits of the people are also shown by the extended use of life assurance. He proposes to issue a loan in the colony for £250,000, not for revenue purposes, but as an encouragement to the people to invest in Government stock. Debentures will be issued for £10 each, bearing interest at the rate of £5 per cent, per annum. He anticipates that when this class of security becomes well known, it will become as popular among the saving classes, as the prac : tice now is of depositing their savings in- either the Post Office or Trustees Savings Banks. The statement will be found in full in another column.