Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY OCT 7, 1903. COST OF GOVERNMENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9866, 7 October 1903, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY OCT 7, 1903. COST OF GOVERNMENT.

In an interesting article which goes fully into the subject of departmental expenditure, the Wellington Post points out that though the stringency of the London money mai'ket has forced severe retrenchment in. the matter of public works so necessary to open up the country, there has . been no corresponding economy in public service expenditure. The Colonial Treasurer appears to be not anxious to .admit that economies are necessary, and will not attempt retrenchment until he is forced to it through stress of circumstances. The Opposition has urged him to make an effort to reduce expenditure by £50,000, and the Leader of the Opposition, has offered the assistance of his Party in effecting such economies. When, the Departmental Estimates were before the House repeated attempts were made to secure • reductions in various directions, when, it was thoi nght there was undue extravagance, but these efforts at economy were resented by members and the Ministerial majority. Our contemporary takes the Estimates of 1899 and compares them with! those of the current year, and comments as follows on the results of the five years' comparison :— In five years the total cost of government has increased by £1,401,---157, equal to about 28.8 per cent., a rate of increase that cannot be defended as being economical. Of course, it will be urged that several new departments liave been' created, and that the Old Age Pensions account for a further lwuvy increase, but while this is true enough, even then the expansion for five years is phenomenal. And the position is worse when we take the increase of population into account. At the close of '

the year 1898 the population totalled 743,463, and at the close of 1901 it totalled 787,657. If to this be nil tied 40,000 as being the probable increase on the 31st December next, w« get the total increase of 84,194 for the five years, and this is equal to 11.3 per cent., yet the increase in the departmental expeitditure is equal to 36 per cent., or more than three times the increase of population. To state the same thing in another way, it may be said that while in five years the increase of population is about 84 r 194, the increase in departmental expenditure is for the same period £970,---584. Then, if we take the public debt, we find that the net debt ou the 31st March, 1899, was £46,080,727, and assuming that the debt will increase by £1,200,000 this year, the net debt on the 31st March, 1904, will be increased approximately £8,705,053, or, say, 18.8 per cent. The interest and sinking fund show an increase of £173,183, or 9.8 per cent.- The interest payment for the cur* rent year is estimated at £1,940,651, and will absorb nearly the whole of the revenue estimated to be derived from Stamps, Land-tax, Income-tax, Beer Duty, Registration, Marine, Miscellaneous, and Territorial Revenue. It is equal to nearly the whole of the revenue yielded by the Railways last year. "The figures are impressive, or should be, but our easy-going politicians will urge that the revenue lias shown buoyancy, and therefore the expenditure is warranted. But as the period of easy money rates will "be followed by dear money, so M re may expect high produce prices to be followed by a time of depression, and that will cause a serious shrinkage in revenue. Now is the time to insist upon economies in the public services, not to wait until the stress of, circumstances forces retrenchment upon the colony, and then effect in- haste what should be done with prudent deliberation."