FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 4071, 19 June 1882, Page 2

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

— «. — _ The following is that portion of the Financial Statement omitted by us in our Saturday's issue : — IMPERIAL GUARANTEED LOAN. I may inform the Committee that, inclnded in the liabilities on the 31at March last, is a sum of £24.000 for sinking fund to the 31st March, 1882, in respect of the £800,000 unsold debentures of that portion of the loan of 1870 amounting to £1,000,000, which is goaranteed by the Imperial Government. The Imperial Act provides for a sinking fund of 2 per cent, per annum on the entire amount of tho guaranteed portion of the loan, or so much of it as is raised for the time being, commencing at the date at which the whole of the loan is raised, or at the expiration of ten years from the passing of the Act, whichever date happens first. When the first remittance of sinking fund was made— namely. for the half-year to the 13th March, 1881— 'it was considered that provision was required only for the sinking fund payable in respect I of the debentures for £200,000 which had been sold, nnd not also for the debentures for £800,000, which, though created, had not been placed in circulation. The question was, however, reconsidered upon the receipt of a despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to His Excellency the Governor, and the Government determined to provide sinking fund for the whole guaranteed loan of £1,000,000. Remittances have now been made accordingly to the trustees of the fund. ORDINARY REVENUE FOR 1881-82. The estimrted revenue of the year, exclusive of the revenue derived from sales of land, was £3,297,650. The actual amount paid into the public account was £3,448,170, £190,520 in excess of the estimate. We are indebted to the Customs revenue for the greater portion of this excess, £125,107 having been received from that source. The revenue from stamp duties was £11,115 in excess of the estimate. Miscellaneous receipts were also in excess £34,243, while from depasturing licenses, rents. &c, we obtained £86.852 mor« than we anticipated. On the other band the amount derived from the property tax fell short of the estimate by £19,025. Of this som £9,270 has yet to come in. £2,200 represents the amount estimated to be received from buildine societies, which were afterwards rendered exempt, and £7,5."6 is an over estimate. The revenue from railways proved to be £25.266 less than the estimate, but honorable members will be glad to learn that the net receipts from railways, which were estimated at £304,744, amounted to £368,927, or £4,183 more than estimated. LAND SALES 1881-82. Following the course approved by Parliament in the session of 1880-81, a separate account of the land sales has been kept. The expenditure charged against the fond during the year amounted to £338,076, including £136,861 for subsidies paid to local bodies. The amount voted for departmental services chargeable on the land fund was £154,510. The amount actually received and paid into the public account was £317,063, of which £282,136 was for lands sold for cash, and £34,927 cash instalments for sales on deferred payments. Adding to the receipts of the year the balance at credit of the land fund account on the 31st March, 1881, amounting to £32,373, and deducting the expenditura, we have a balance on this account of £11,360 at credit on the 31st March, 1882. PUBLIC WORKS FUND, The appropriations on this account for the year ended 31st March last amounted to £1,892.554. The liabilities outstanding at the close of the year amounted to £880,276. During the year special receipts and recoveries, amounting to £42,378. came to the credit of the fund, and, on the3lst March, 1882, the balance remaining unexpended, subject, however, to the liabilities I have just mentioned, was £924,865, consisting of cash in the Bank of New Zealand, £647,646 ; advances in the hands of officers of the Government, £60,319; debentures of the loan of 1870 guaranteed by the Imperial Government. £135,300 j amount invested in debentures of tho New Zealand Government. £44,000, and temporary advances made on certain other securities, £37,600. The balance at credit of tho fund on the 3lafc March, 1881, was £1,860,373, and on the 31st March, 1882, it was £924,865. The extent to which it was diminished during the year was therefore £935,508. These figures »how that the fund has been carefully husbanded, so as to extend the expenditure over the time we had agreed to again go upon the London market. Hon members will observe that there was sufficient money in hand on the 31st March, 1882, to carry on public works to the end of next February, at the same rate at whbh they have been pursued, during the last year. PURCHASE OP NATIVE LANDS. Included in the liabilities of the Public Works Fund at the end of the year, is a sum of £338,876 for purchase of native ]ands. The amount whioh will be required for this year to complete tho purchase of those blocks which the Government has decided to acquire will probably not exceed £100,000. THE PUBLIC DEBT. On the 31st March, 1881, the gross public debt of the Colony amounted to £29,165,511, subject to a deduction of £2,057,242 for accrued sinking fund. On the 31st March, 1882, the debt was £29,946,711, and the sinking fund had increased to £2,266,418, the net debt being thus £27,680,293, or £572,024 more than it was in the previous year. This increase of debt is thus explained : Of the Treasury Bills which on the 31st March, 1881, formed a portion of the Public Works Fund, sales to the amount of £431,300 have taken place. These bills had been taken up in 1880, with money standing to the credit of that fund, as there was then a large balance, not wanted for immediate expenditure, requiring temporary investment. They have now been sold, and the proceeds paid into the Public Works Fund, as the money was required for works authorised by Parliament. The debt has also been increased during the year by further advances, amounting to £364,700, obtained ii> London, upon the security of the debentures of the loan of 1870, guaranteed by the Imperial Government. With reference to the £800,000 Imperial guaranteed debentures, I may perhaps remind the Committee that, although io speaking of the amount of the Public Works Fund they are always treated as cash, they have, as a matter of fact, never been sold, but are used to provide a working balance, to save interest by borrowing upon them from time to time only such sums as are required according to tho state of the Public Works Fund. I may mention, on the other hand, that debt has practically been reduced during the year by the addition of £209,176 to tho accumulated sinking fund, to which has to be added £14.800 for debentures of the North Otago District Public Works Loan of 1872 redeemed, the net increase in the total amount of the debt being thus, as I have said, £572,024. SAVINGS RANKS AND THE GOVERNMENT INSURANCE DEPARTMENT. Before I proceed to sum up the financial results of the year 1881-82, it may not be out . of place for me to give a few figures in connection with the Government Savings Bank aud the Life Insurance Department, by way of illustrating the steady progress of the Colony, the rapid advancement of these institutions, ami the growth of habitsof prudence amongst the people during the last ten years. Amounts standing to tho credit of each depositor on December, 1871 and 1881, in the

Post-office Savings Bank, and those established under " The Savings' Bank Act, 185S":— 1871. ISSI. luoiease. £ £ £ P.O. Bank... 357,654 1,232,788 87.">.134 Other Banks 97,312 316,726 21!i,414 Both Banks 4,541,967 1,549,515 1,091,548 The following are the number of depositors at the banks :—: — 1871. 1881. Increase. Post-office Bank 10,549 61,008 40,459 Other Banks ... 3,726 10,04(5 0.320 Both Banks ... 14,275 61,054 46,77'J The following shows the increase of population during ten years :—: — 1871. 18S1. Innronso. Population ... 266,986 500,910 233,924 The following shows the average amount at the credit o£ depositors :—: — 1871. 1881. Deereuse. £ s. d. £ s. d, £s. d. P.O. Bank... 33 18 1 24 3 4 914 9 Inorease. Other Banks 26 2 4 31 17 1 514 9 ofbothßanks 31 17 5 25 7 7 e^iTlO These figures are well worth the careful consideration of hon. members. They show the remarkable extent to which advantage of the savings banks is being taken by the people for whose benefit they were established, the population having barely doubled itself since 1871, while the number of depositors has increased nearly fivefold. Intimately connected with the subject of the prudential savings of the community are the questions of life assurance and the growth of the GOVERNMENT INSURANCE DEPARTMENT, established in 1870, at a time when public confidence in a great many English insurance companies was severely shaken, and with the avowed object of giving lo the assured the absolute security of the Colony, The department has since exhibited a progressive advancement, which warrants the estimate that the experiment sanctioned by the Legislature twelve years ago has now been proved a complete success. This scheme may be justly described as the only successful instance of the kind set on foot by any Government, and the example thus offered has attracted the attention of other Colonial Governments, and also the Indian Government. [The Colonial Treasurer then at some length showed the business that had been done by the Government Assurance Department, and intimated that the Ministry had decided to ask Parliament to place it under a Board. A bill to carry this object; into effect had been prepared, and would be placed before members.] Referring to life insurance generally, the Colonial Treasurer said : The number of life policies in force, issued by insurance companies in New Zealand, in 1871 has been estimated at 2000, insuring about £1,000,000. Last year there were in force in round numbers 24,000 policies, insuring £8,300,000. This gives an increase for the period of 22,000 policies and £7,300,000 in the amount insured, or eleven times the number of persons, and more than seven times the sum, insured in the Colony eleven years ago. FINANCIAL RESULTS OP 1881-2. Honorable members will find, on referring to the Financial Statement which I had the honor to make last year, that, excluding the land sales from the Consolidated Fund, there was a deficit on 31st March, 1881, of £5,607 ; but that, including the land sales, there was a surplus balance of £26,706 to the credit of the Colony upon the actual transactions completed within the year. As I have stated already, the ordinary revenue of the Consolidated Fund for the past year amounted to £3,488,170, and the expenditure to £3,278,820. The ordinary revenue, therefore, exceeded the expenditure by £209,350, and deducting from this sum the deficit of the previous year, £5.667, we have n. credit balance of £203,683 at the close of the financial year 1881-82 on this division of the accounts. LARGE SURPLUS. When, however, we come to consider the whole transactions of the year, it is clear that the proceeds of laad sales and their expenditure must appear in the account. We find that the total moneys received and paid into the public account during the year, including land sales, was £3,805,233, and the total expenditure, including charges on the land sales, was £3,616,895. The receipts were thus £188,338 in excess of the expenditure ; and adding to this sum the surplus at the close of the year 1880-81, £26,706, we find that we have a credit balance on the 31st ' March, 1882, of £215,044. LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILLS. I shall shortly ask leave to introduce bills to give effect to such alterations as the Gorernment think necessary in the constitution of local bodies, and also to make sufficient provision for their financial requirements. The principles which the Government have taken for their guidance in preparing these measures are, first, that the local bodies should be left as far as possible free from central control; second, that they should have conferred upon them all powers which can be advantacreously exercised by such bodies ; third, that their finances should be as distinct as possible from the colonial finance, and that their revenues should be sufficient. The necessity of dealing with this subject during the present session is admitted upon all sides. Captain Edwin telegraphed at noon today :—": — " Bad weather probable between north-east and north and -west. Glu6s fall soon, with wind backing, and within twelve hours sea heavy and much rain." At a recent ploughing match near Inverness, a well-known advocate of total abstinence principles — a Councillor of the Royal burgh — offered as a special prize a slim of money to the ploughman who had been a total abstainorfor the longest period. When the time arrived for the distribution of the prizes, and when this particular sum of money was announced, the necessary inquiry was mado among the men. " The ploughmen were all frank in their replies. The result of the investigation was this : the man who had abstained for the longest period was one who had " tasted nothing" since "dinner-time" that Baine day! This meant a period of about two hours ! A species of hieroglyphic in blue pencil appear on all letters just now passing through the various Post-offices of the Colony. The Grey River Argus has made inquiries as to tho reason why, and thus explains :—": — " On inquiry at Iho Post-office wu were courteously informed that instructions have been received to record tho number and weight of all stamped articles posted at the different offices for a stated period, and also the value of stamps affixed thereto, distinguishing the different classes of correspondence ; and the blue pencilmarks referred to are to show that the letters, &c, have been thus dealt with. The process must involve a deal of labor, especially in the larger offices, but an accurate return is necessary, as sinco the docision that all tho proceeds from stamp sales shall be classed simply as ' stamp revenue,' there is no other method of determining the amount of revenue derived from stamps used for postal purposes." Kohn & Co. are selling their Stock of Jewelley ut greatly reduced prices. Con- j vince yourself, and call at the New Zea- 1 land Clothing Factory.— -Adv. itc — b