MR. LARNACH'S STATEMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 472, 2 November 1877, Page 2

MR. LARNACH'S STATEMENT.

(FUOM OUH OWN (JOIIRKSI'ONDENT.) Wellington, November 1

The following is nearly a verbatim report of the most important part of MY. Liarnaeh's speech yest.rday. The figures were taken from an official slip furnished to Hansard, hx the courtesy of Mr. Barron, the cldef of the Hansard staff :

Mr. Ltrnach : The indebtedness of the Colony is L 24,200.000 in round numbers. Here Major Atkinson laughed.

Mr. Larnach continued : The member for Egniont always laughs when matters of finance are under discussion. After sufficient to pay for Treasury Bills, the indebtedness of the Colony siauds to-day jit j-24.000,000. L 1,000,000 is duo to lii'e banks, then taere are Lll),000 Treasury Bibs. By a late Treasurer's financial statement, wo have to provide ways and means for t e ensuing year to the extent of Li,200.000. Wo will have to pay the Baaks of :\ew Zealand and JS'ew South Wales L 1,000,000. Too amount to recoup ■on guaranteed delieutur. s is LSOO,OOO, and the amount to recoup to Public Works Account, is L 300,000. The late Colonial Treasurer must admit that it is not, possible to pay tins out of the consolidated revetiu ', because that at present cannot ail'»rd it. Tuo deficiency in lite Provincial liabilities estimates is L 200.000 ; the deficiency, as admitted by the late Premier, is LiO 700. L:abilit"\, on iheLyiteiton Harbour works, Lloo,ouo. 'i'iii'S'! sums woidd reij.iire a loan of L 0 ,000.000. 1 pivsume that you will put a loan on the London ntarkt t at <±\ pir eeiir, allowing for discount and ilo; ; ;i;ig charges, 0 percent., which would amount lo L:J00,0t)O to be add.jd to tlu: indebtedness of tiie Colony, nuking a total of L21,1G2,311. That would leave no.hing but the'general debentures of LBOO,OOU to carry ou the public works, and to make railways even tolerably reproductive you must spend a large sum on branch feeder railway lines, or otherwise you will never have reproduetiveiiess. I tuink we better call a spade a spade, and say to the English money-lenders that wo will require some millions besides the live millions. It is not our intention to deceive them (cheers)—and say wc only want a fow tiiousai; 1 pounds to carry us over a time. That is not a proper system of finance. The English money-lenders have not refused to kaul money. The English moneylender has a right to the refusal of any loans olfered by the Colony. Jt is not right to leave'him to find out indirectly that the Colony has been borrowing half a million here and half a, million there. 1 can only characterise that as pawnbroking linance. Wo must not go to some back street to borrow any money we require. I have a financial statement in a simple form. Tiie state of the public account on Saturday last was this : —The amount to the credit of the Colony was LG40,003 Bs. Id , out of which deduct amounts, on account of Land Fund, due to Canterbury, L 525,£09 12s. Gd. ; Otago, LOT,]2O 18s. 3d. ; Hawko's Bay, L 8,772 14s. 7d. ; Marlborough, LIGS 10s. Tocai, L595,4G8 l'3s. Bd. To credit of Trust Fund Account. L 57,337 lis. 7d. This would leave the public account in debt to the amount of L12,G02 17s. 2d. I received a memorandum shortly after I took office to the following effect : —" I have the honour to point out that, after providing for all orders in favour of the AgentGeneral to the 13th inst., and for the interest and sinking fund duo in Wellington on the loth January, exclusive of moneys in London, the proceeds of the LBOO,OOO Imperial guarantee debentures, taken at their par value would be exhausted, find there woul.l be a deficit of L 8,83:5 l">s. on ths last named date to be provided for. Railways and Public Works payments lo be met by the 20th will enlarge this deficit to the sum of L 33,271 13a, 9d. Believing the matter to be quite urgent, 1 again beg to call your attention to thi3 state of the accounts. The Treasury accounts at tins date siiow a nominal overdraft of L 195,933 13i. Bd. T.iis account has been drawn against the balance of the guaranteed debentures, but leaving!

in the hands of loan agents available for hypothecation L 37.000; balance, L179,0GG 3s. 4d. This balance leaves uvailablo funds in England for charging interest and sinking fund dnu in Wellington to date, and all orders of the bank transmitted to the Agent-General. Interest ind sinking fund falling due between this date and the 17th of January, 1878, is as follows : —3lst October, L 5485 7s. Id.; Ist November, L 3105 ; do., L 12.500 ; Ist D, comber, L 4000; 15th December, L 13,100; 31st December, L 18,915 ; 15th January, L 155,1.% 10s. Total, L 212,337 17s. Id. Deliciency, L.33,271 13s. !)d. Funds will have to be provided to meet this deficit, and for any orders on the bank in favour of the AgentGeneral, which it may be necessary to transmit to England np to this date. A further sum of LI 35,000 is due in London for interest on the Ist of February.— Signed, 0. T. Batkin, Clerk 1o Treasury. Treasury, 23rd Oetober, 1877." So that you will see that LIOB,OOO would have to be provided on Ist February. Then, yesterday I received another memo, following that I have just read :—" Referring to my memo, of the 23rd instant, relative to tiie position of the New Zealand public account in London, in which 1 pointed out that the amount remaining to bo raised on the guaranteed debentures would be insufficient by the sum of L 33,271 13s. 9d , to provide for the interest falling due in London on the 15th January, and that a further sum of L 155,000 will be payable on the Ist February folio win..-:, 1 have again to call attention to the matter, and to point out that provision for these payments is to be made by remittance from the Colony, and such remittance must be made by the mail leaving on the I.oth of November prox.—Signed, C. T. Batkin." Well, sir, it is very hard to make bricks without straw"; and, unless more borrowing is resorted to, how are these funds to bo met? Mr. Larnach went on to saj r that he did not like the position of Treasurer, and would be glad if l'elieved of it. He heard Captain Russell say yesterday that he had been allowed suflicient time to prepare his financial statement. Mowould only answer that Captain Russell did not know what lie was talking about. He compared Mr. Fox to the pantaloon of the House, and said that it was a pity that he had not a wand in his hand to dance round the late Premier and hit him in the prominent part of his person. Mo denied that lie was a land jobber. All his land was freehold. He was only anxious to see the Land Hill passed. J\lr. Larnach also, (lining the e nir.sj of his speed), said that he had been twonly-four years in a bank, and four yeur-i as manager of a l.irge niercaiitll ; business, anil he thought lie knew as much of linanec as Major Atkinson. His sp-jecli was gen Tally calm and dispassionate, and his stateineiit of ii ;iires .simple .ill' 1 clear.