The otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 653, 4 June 1864, Page 13

The otago Witness.

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, JUNE 4.

The proceedings in the Provincial Council during the past week have not been without interest, and the policy of the present Government has been fully laid before the country. Coming into office on a question of finance, the new Executive may fairly claim for their financial policy the approval of the Province ; and we are justified in anticipating that .the reckless expenditure, and ill-digested financial arrangements which have done so much towards involving the Province in difficulties, have been completely • abolished, and a system adopted which will enable the Government to recover from the unsatisfactory position in which it has been placed. Strict economy in every branc & of the service, and a careful and legitimate administration of its revenues will prevent a recurrence of those difficulties, which had they not been fairly met by these means, would have been most calamitous. Retrenchment is the motto of the present Government; and already have the first steps been taken in that direction by the redaction of those departments which, in the present condition of the Province are unnecessarily costly and cumbersome.

On Monday night, the Provincial Treasurer made his financial statement, which although not pretending to any oratorical effort, was a clear and sensible definition of the policy the new Government propoied to adopt. Mr Clapcott takes as his

atarting point the fixed sum at which the Bank is willing to allow the over-draft of the current account of the Government to remain. He stated that it was imperative that this point should be definitely settled, and he suggested that it should be fixed at £100,000— being about the amount at which the over-draft now stands — the repayment of which will have to come out of the sale of debentures at Home. The Provincial Treasurer showed that the sum of £35,000, which the late' Government said existed as a surplus, did not in fact exist, it having been absorbed by the Bank to the reduction of the over-draft. Starting, therefore, with the understanding that the Bank would allow the over-draft to remain at £100,000, the Treasurer estimated the expenditure for the current half-year as follows : — Departmental, £149,656 ; general expenses, £36,949 ; public works, £42,448 ; roads, £107,892; making a total of -£336,946. To meet this, the estimated revenue amounts to £199,694, leaving a deficiency of /137.252. ;To meet thi3, it is proposed to place on the local market the Harbor Improvement and Public Buildings Loan 3, and the Loan for General Purposes of 1861-2— amounting in the aggregate to £143,000. The Treasurer then proceeeded to say :—

The remarks I am about to make, are intended to show the way in which I propose to realise the £35,000 of surplus revenue which should have existed at the end of the last financial year Trusting to the negotiation of the L»ans I hare named, I propose to take from the Harbor Loan which is one of £50,000, the sum of £21,600, to repay the Bank for cash already advanced on account of works which are legitimately charged to this Loan. From the Public Buildings' Loan, which is another of £50,000, I propose to take £13,500, to repay the Bank for advances. . By these means, I shall have liberated the £35,000 which, I take it, was absorbed before this by the Bank, and it is now fairly in my power to place this £35,000 in tke estimated revenue for the current six months. I will, with the permission of the House, call the estimated expenditure £340,000, inasmuch as there are some items which do not appear in the printed Estimates, but which it will be necessary to include in Supplementary Estimates. I have redeemed the | £35,00* surplus revenue for 1868-64. In the! Estimates, there will be found a total of £14,257 for works fairly chargeable against the Harbor Loan, and this amount I propose to take from that Loan." The Loan of 1861-62, 1 shall require to its full amount of £43,000— that is an eight per cent. loan. From the Public Buildings' ' Loan, I shall require in addition t* that which I have already taken, a sum of £1000 towards expenses which may be legitimately charged against that loan, namely, those of the Court-house and Gaol. I have thus increased the estimated revenue as it stands in the printed Estimates, L 199,694, to a total of £292,851 ; but this still shows a deficiency of £47,049. From the three Local Loans the aggregate of which I have stated to be £143,000, supposing we can negotiate them all, after deducting the various sums I have mentioned— namely, Harbor Loan, £35,875; Public Buildings, £14,500; Loan of 1861-62, £43,000, making a total of £93,357~1 shall have a surplus in hand of £49,643. But, sir, this sum of £49,643 must not be thought for a moment to be available towards meeting the deficiency of the revenue. I can only expend^ this sum for legiti- j mate objects, with respect to which the Ordinances are very strict. So that while on the hand I have a deficiency of £47,000 in the revenue, on the other hand I shall have a surplus of £49,000 odd on specified Loans. Of course, sir, I have not mentioned in these remarks, the j £200,000 we are indebted to the Bank; that is j totally distinct from the over-draft on our current account. That £200,000, will, we trust, be paid out of the debentures which have been sent home. Well, sir, supposing that these debentures should be negotiated, as well as ' those that are still in this, country— and it is the intention of the Government to place the Eight per Cent. Loan and the Harbor Loan in the market without delay— trusting to the negotiations of our loans, the total amtunt of which is £643,000, and deducting all tbe sums I have named, amounting to £393,357, we shall still ! have available for legitimate purposes, a sum of $849,643. I hare no doubt that some honorable ; members may be afraid that the Government wDI be somewhat rash, and push these debentures into the market, simply because' we are under a i temporary pressure. It would be very unwise so to do, and I think the present Government wDI be very loth to do anything of the kind. They have thought the matter seriously over, and they intend, as far as possible, to prevent such a misfortune. The only way to prevent such a misfortune will be to have other means at their command. It must be quite evident to hpn. members | that without taxation, which I should be very sorry to recommend, there is only one ether means, and that is, the sale of land. The Government, therefore, to prevent any sacrifice by pushing loans into the market, have determined that all unsold land within Hundreds, whether surveyed orj unsurveyad, shall be open for selection on and altar the 16th June next. Iv the debate which ensued, the late Trea-

surer refused to recognise that the new Government was placed in any better position to the Bank than its predecessor; he even went further, and said it was much worse off. He stated that, in reality, the late Government was in a position, if it had chosen, to make itself quite independent of the Bank, by taking advantage of -the terms of the agreement by which the Government was' empowered to draw on the London Agency of the Bank against •>■ the debentures, and the Bank here would < have been compelled to accept such drafta in payment of the over-draft. Yet Mr Gillies appeared to ignore the evident fact, that if such in reality was the position of < the late Government, Ahe agreement was equally available to the present one. Of course it was only to be expected that he shonld cavil at the financial programme of bis successor, but he failed to show any ju«t grounds for his criticisms ; whilst, on the other hand, he equally failed to convince the House that the change of Government was not a change for the better.

We to-day publish an engraving representing a complete view of the City of Dunedin, the harbor, and surrounding scenery. The river is taken from the elevated plateau between Maclaggan and High streets, a position well chosen for mciv- , ding the principal features of the City and Harbor. Could we place side by side with this picture, one of Dunedin as it appeared from the same point of view/ four years ago, the identity would be difficult of recognition, excepting from the natural, features of the scene. Where now the site is covered with blocks of large warehouses and fine buildings, was then a mere waste offlaxandscrub.dotted hereaudthere with huts which have given place .to, substantial and comfortabe residences. To those who have not seen the Dunedin of to-day, and who cherish the remembrance of Dunedin as it was before the gold discoveries, this engraving will be an interesting and instructive index of the vast strides the city has made in wealth and importance? whilst to all it willbejan equally interesting pictorial record. The engraving may claim to be the largest and best finished wood engraving that has been produced in this colony; and although it possesses many imperfections, it is still a satisfactory step in the march of improvement, and will doubtless be so accepted and appreciated by our readers.