SOME PLEASANT FIGURES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6027, 11 October 1906, Page 6

SOME PLEASANT FIGURES.

Tho Prime Ministerial statement which wo attach to the revenue returns for the six months ended 30th September, appearing in this issue, says almost all that need bo said concerning tho extremely satisfactory state 'of the colony’s finances. Tho figures constitute a destructive reply to that school of criticism which takes delight in affirming that tho colony is at the apos of a “boom” and declining towards tho inevitable ruin of fictitious appearances. That class of criticism is happily growing less popular as it is becoming increasingly discredited, butno occasion should bo lost to insist that the colony’s progress is real and very healthy. For tho first six months of tho financial year 1905-6 the revenue amounted to £3,179,937, and this has increased by no less a sum than £302,632 during the first six months of tiro current financial year. There, has been an iricrease under every head in the “ordinary revenue,” and the only decreases aro those of £2OOO and £IO,OOO in the deferred payment land sales and pastoral rents respectively. Especially gratifying are the increases in tho Postal and Railway Departments, while the steady advance in the Customs receipts,-however it may distress the poqjlo who look with distaste upon a grow ng Customs revenue, will nevertheless be received as a notable reassurance of the steadiness of the rise of our commercial barometer. Tho Colonial Treasurer and tho country arc to bo congratulated upon a very pleasant set of figures indeed. The Premier will probably be censured for under-estimating the revenue, but when things are going well, it would bo hyper-sensitive to feel hurt by that suggestion, oven had it any importance, which it certainly has not, noi" ever load. ■ ■ ,