THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9983, 27 February 1894, Page 2

THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

—: — *.' ~": THE PREMIER'S REPLY; Otrn Own CorrespondeSt'.) : Wellington, IJebrnary! JJ6. To-day I obtained.an interview with the remier, and sought from .him a reply to the ijoinder of the Times of^the 21th to his justification" as to the expenditure of the itago Central vote. The Premier courteously amplied with my request, and here ia his sply:—The amount voted for tho year was 145,000, and this has to cover expenditure till 'arliament meets again to authorise further exenditure, which will be in June at the earliest. t is true that an authority to incur liabilities o the extent of a further £15,000 was also ;iveD, but no authority whatever was given for he expenditure of this money, and not a penny if it can be expended until it is expressly voted or expenditure by Parliament. It may perhaps >o asked " What was the use of authorising the labilities?" The gieatestpossible use. With>ufc the authority both the expenditure and the labilities would have had to be kept within the imount of the vote, as the Government has no rathority to commit v Parliament by incurring labilities over and above the asaounfc which has oeen voted for a particular purpose. As however the £45,000 vote has to cover ill expenditure till Parliament meets again rod authorises further expenditure, it is necessary to keep in hand sufficient money to cover the expenditure that will take place up to the end of June next, and as £29,496 had been expended up to the 20th February the amount retained in hand is none too much for the purpose. The Public Revenues Act allows ordinary salaries and similar recurrent charges to go on for three months after the end of the financial year without special appropriation, but, as already stated, no expenditure on Works is allowable in excess of the votes of Parliament; hence the necessity of-the vote of last session covering expenditure to the end of June next. , What may have caused a misapprehension in respect to this may have arisen from the fact that last session the second column, or what was previously shown aa the appropriation column, was dispensed with in the Public Works Estimates, and the amount voted was shown on the one column only. In the second column there was an appropriation, and on the strength of this appropriation liabilities could be incurred. The amount of the vote now taken only covers the actual expenditure up to the 30th of June.