THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1896. THE PUBLIC FINANCES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1249, 6 February 1896, Page 22

THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1896. THE PUBLIC FINANCES.

Prophecy is the most dangerous thing that a public critic can attempt. Last year the Post about this time prophesied a serious deficit for the end of the year. Itinformed us, after a great wriggle among the figures, that the Treasurer would be half a million short at least at the eud of the year. We pointed out gently all the many fallacies in the line of reasoning crowned by the dismal prophecy, and we took the trouble to point out the various reasons, patent to all who know anything about the public accounts, for believing that instead of a deficit of half a million there would be a very substantial surplus. All that trouble was thrown away upon our contemporary, who stuck to his guns until the Financial Statement came out with a surplus a good deal larger than the one we ventured to anticipate. Wo were really very sorry for his discomfiture, because wo had taken the usual course of proving the truth by two different and separate methods. But there is an old saying about the aberration of intellect into which the higher powers sometimes plunge those whom they have marked as proper subjects for coming to grief. Our contemporary has evidently never heard of this saying because, untaught by dire experience, he is prophesying again. It is true that the accounts for the December quarter show a balance on the wrong side for tho three quarters ending on December 31st of .£279,000. It is also true that the year began with a surplus, no doubt greatly to j his astonishment —we will not say disappointment, because we prefer to think that our contemporary is patriotic enough to rejoice when things go Avell with the country —the year, we repeat, began with a surplus of .£IBO,OOO. Adding these two together our contemporary is decorously jubilant over a deficit of .£459,000. From that departure he goes on to some surprising conclusions. We notice, however, that among these conclusions is one to the effect that things may after all come right. Something very clever will have to be done, he thinks, and something very lucky will have to happen, and if tiiis combination occurs the Treasurer, ho opines, may after all arrive at his esti- j mated even balance at the end of tho year. What ! After a deficit of ,£459,000 at the end of the third quarter. The adversity of last year has then after all produced a gleam of sense. But it is not enough, for the lino of argument will never be put right by a different result to those predicced. We congratulate our contemporary on his suspicion that after all everything may come right. Of course it will come right, but not by the display of any special talent by anybody, and not by any special luck. Tho facts are that the last quarter always has, as we pointed out last year, its special advantages. There are the receipts of two weeks extra brought to book, amounting roughly to between .£120,000 and .£150,000; the second half of the pastoral rents come in with ,£40,000; the interest payments are exceptionally low, lower. V>y some £350,000; and there are other receipts which are brought to credit in tho last quarter. All this we pointed out last year, and our figures were bettered by the results. In view of these facts, speaking generally, we have no hesitation in saying that the even balance estimated by the Treasurer is already in sight. We will add that the indications are that there is every reason to expect a surplus, and a (substantial surplus, at the end of the year, which will not be due to any phenomenal out-turn from tho tariff, which our contemporary more than suspects to have been estimated carefully and as carefully concealed. We are quite content to wait calmly a 3 we did last year for the Financial Statement. Wo were right then, and we make no doubt that we are right now. We shall have some more jeremiads and tirades from the Opposition press, and tho Opposition press will be confounded by a surplus. They will probably declare that the surplus is bogus —that is their little way—and then the annual comedy of the Opposition will be complete. THE PLIMMERTON SALE. It was one of the briskest sales we remember to have seen in Wellington. Well attended by bona fide buyers, it went through with considerable spirit. Not a single section failed to find a buyor; all the sections went off at rates very considerably higher than tho upset price openly announced in each case, and the average time during which each avos disposed of was under three minutes. An hour | and fUty minutes was sufficient for the whole work, including the auctioneer's j nsual announcement of conditions and ' other preliminaries, and at the end of that ( time the Wellington and Manawatu Rail-

way Company had obtained £24/76 for their sections, of which about .£ISOO was contributed by the historic pah of Te Rauparaha's people. At the prices the average per acre amounted to several hundreds, in one case to nearly £IOOO. So that the sale was not only brisk, but remarkably satisfcictory- The Company, we feel sure, must be satisfied, and there is no doubt that the buyers are pleased with their purchases. The only disappointed ones were those who failed to get the sections they wanted. Howit is that the public who run after seaside sections seventeen miles, and give such prices, hesitate about an average of £~>Q per acre at a well-situated seaside locality like Melrose so much nearer, it is difficult to say. "But that hesitation will in the ordinary course of things pass away. When it does, there will be plenty of money to make brisk sales, as the rush for sections at Plimmerton has proved. We congratulate the Railway Company on the good business of yesterday afternoon. THE WEST COAST RESERVES. We have much pleasure in chronicling a fact which throws vast light on the prosperity of the western district. The fact is that some 600 tenants of these reserves have already paid their rents in advance to the Public Trustee. All, in short, have paid except six. If the late Mr Ballance, who took so much trouble over the Settlements Act which made this prosperity possible, were alive, he would be the proudest man in New Zealand to-day. The Act settled a long-standing, weli-nigh insuperable difficulty. It replaced chaos by order, it satisfied everybody concerned by adjusting conflicting interests, and it has demonstrated the feasibility of entrusting a great work to a State department. The Act is one of the best things, by universal consent, that was done by the Ballance Government, to which all the members of the present administration belonged. A vast and prosperous settlement has come out of it, and its future contains even greater possibilities. Its working is a tribute also to the tact and practical ability of the Public Trustee, and has given valuable testimony that the true method of utilising the lands now in the hands of the Natives to the advantage of both races has been found and applied.