THE COLONIAL REVENUE,

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1165, 5 November 1880, Page 2

THE COLONIAL REVENUE,

The returns of the consolidated revenue or the first half of the current year are, on the whole, encouraging. The total is much less than half the- estimated income for the year, but the first six months always show a bad result when compared with the last half year. In stamps, for instance, the banks compound for the duty payable by them, and this money — no inconsiderable sum — is payable during the second half of the year. Then from the railways may safely be anticipated much better results during the next . six months, as nearly the whole of the wool and grain traffic falls into that portion of the year. The Property Tax, too, is all payable in the last six months. The fact that the expenditure has so far excjeded the revenue is, therefore, no ground for discouragement. In departments where the revenue i 8 more equally divided, such as the Customs, the estimates have in most cases been exceeded. The excesses are not large, but in the aggregate they promise to amount to a considerable sum.

Besides the items noted above an improvement may be looked for in the present half-year from the reductions which have been going on iv nearly every branch of the service. The Minister for Public Works promised a saving of some £30,000 or £40,000 on his department, but to efFucl this many reductions have had to bd made, and these cannot tell to any material extent on the expenditure for the first half-year. The police force has also been greatly reduced both in officers and men, and here again an appreciable saving may be looked for. The increase of the. tariff rates on the railways ought also to affect the returns favorably, unless trade is thereby checked, and there does not seem to be any fear of such an untoward result; A contemporary which is generally well-informed on subjects which come within the ken of Ministers anticipates a surplus of over £100,000 at the end of the financial year, and we sincerely hope that this prediction will be realised.