COUNCIL PAPERS.

Colonist, Issue 795, 9 June 1865, Page 5

COUNCIL PAPERS.

SUPERINTENDENT'S NOTES ON THB ESTIMATES.

The following Message (No. 6) from his Honor the Superintendent was received last night and read by the Speaker: — The Superintendent transmits herewith Estimates in detail of the Revenue and Proposed Expenditure fur the current financial year. The salaries for the Meteorological Registrar, Inspector of Weights and Measures, and Registrar of Cattle Brands, are estimated for six months only, as the Superintendent is prepared to recommend that these officers be dispensed with at the expiration of what he considers a reasonable notice. In recommending the same course with regard to {he officers in connection with the Collingwood goldfields, the Superintendent is only acting on the resolution passed by the Provincial Council in its last session suggesting a reduction of expenditure in this department. The small salary or retaining fee hitherto Toted to the Deputy-Auditor will not be found in the nccompanying Estimates, as the Superintendent considers that fee unnecessary under any circumstances, but particularly useless when paid to an officer whose employment in the Provincial service would disqualify him from acting in the event of his services becoming necessary. The small amount that can in future bo depended on as the receipts of the Land Office would justify the Council in expecting some considerable reduction in the expenses of that department, and the Superintendent has been most anxious to meet the reasonable expectations of the Council upon this subject, but regrets that he is not yet in possession of the necessary information, or sufficiently free to remodel a department presided over by an appointee of the General Government, to point out the exact direction in which the inevitable reduction should be effected. Courtesy to the Colonial Government will suggest the propriety of voting to the Land Commissioner for a period of six months the full salary that ho has received under the late Superintendent as Provincial Secretary and Land Commissioner, at the end of which time the Superintendent trusts that the Commissioner himself will be able to propose some arrangement by which the expenses of the Land Department may be proportioned to the reduced Lmd Revenue ; and in any case he cannot recommend the Council to increase them by -voting a salary to the one office that has hitherto been paid to the two offices combined. In order that the Provincial Counoil may exercise more complete control over the salaries to bo paid to all officers in the employ of the Provincial Government, and at once to see the amount actually received by such officers, the Superintendent proposes to discontinue all field allowances, travelling expenses, and other extras that hare hitherto been paid. This arrangement will cause the Estimates in many instances to show an apparent increase where a very considerable decrease is actually proposed. Thus the salary of the Chief Surveyor appears on the Estimates now forwarded to the Council to bo increased from £350 to £425 ; but it is in reality decreased from £461, the sum actually paid to that officer last year. The two surveyors that appear to have been increased £100 are really decreased £47 12s. ;■ and the salaries of the two Cadets, that appear increased £30, are decreased £100 15!. The system of thus augmenting salaries voted by the Council out of funds voted for surveys and other public worts appears to the Superintendent to bo loose, undesirable, and unconstitutional; and he thinks that the Provincial Auditor should be requested in no case to treat such additions as Authorised Expenditure, otherwise there is reftlly nothing to prevent any Superintendent indefinitely increasing his own salary or that of any officers in his employ without the sanction or even the knowledge of the Legislature. After much consideration, the Executive hare decided to forward the Estimates for the Harbor Department exactly as they have been recommended by the Chief Pilot and Harbor Master, as, although they show a very considerable increase on the expenditure of the last year, the Superintendent does not feel justified in recommending the Council not to vote what the knowledge and experience of that officer consider necessary for the efficient discharge of his votj ropowublt dutiei. Tk« Council will obwrv*

that some portion of the increased expenditure v proposed for improvement of a permanent character. The Police Force hat also been increased in accordance with the recommendation of the Resident Magistrate. ■■.- The Superintendent also transmits herewith a Comparative Statement of Snms Voted and Expended during'the year ended 31st March last. AIRBED SATOMB9, : Superintendent.