Taranaki Herald. MONDAY MAY 29, 1905. THE COLONY'S FINANCES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 12868, 29 May 1905, Page 4

Taranaki Herald. MONDAY MAY 29, 1905. THE COLONY'S FINANCES.

The statement which Mr Seddon laid before a Dunedin audience ou Wfednesday last, with reference to the finances of the colony, was, on the face of it, very satisfactory. The excess of receipts over expenditure fortr t the j^ear ended 31st March last amounted .to no less than ,£711,295. The revenue totalled ,£7,282,870, more than a qluarter of a million in excess \of the previous year, while > the expenditure showed an increase) )of ,£201,621. In . nearly > every department the revenue exceeded the estimate and the previous year's total, the Customs ' and Railway •refvenue giving evidence^ of the greater spending; power }of thet people, while the growth of the income tax ; from ,£221,368 to «£ 2 53)952 shows that the moneyed and commercial people, as distinct from the working classes, j have been doing very well. The only item! which was actual!}/ smaller than in the previous year was "beer duty, and the deficiency was only about £500. £ash! land sales resulted in a smaller return, but the falling off { was more ' than made giood By an increase in rents. On, the expenditure side of thej statement Mr Seddon, did not{ furnish' the details ; the permanent aipprbpjriationsMmcludihg interest, on the public t:febt, old-age- pensions, / etc. —were greater by '£57i055, *tn& * n€ aimfuial appropriationsh-the charges for running, the different^ departmiemit^— j slh]owj an Increase / oiS It would be interesting to know Bow this is ntade up, because it is in the growing cost of adsnMstration 1 thjat iwe \ See the 1 greatest' danger in the future. It

"is so easy to keep on adding to [the cost of government when times j arc good and revenue buoyant, and so hard to economise aiKl use the pruning knife when there is a rc-v<-i>-e condition of affairs. By extraordinary good fortune thei falling oil m "quantity of the colony's leading exports in the last year or two has been more than made good by a substantial rise in prices, and everything has ended happily. If, however, fortune had not been so kind, •' the spending power of the people would have suffered a great decline, and Mr Bcddon would have had a less satisfactory story to tell. The colony's} prosperity and financial soundness \ ought not, however, to be in any degree dependent on chance. The fact ought to 'be borne in mind that in 1887 the late Sir Harry Atkinson had to face a position which approximated 1a . "burst. after a "boom," and very drastic economies had to be rpsorted to in order to restore the financial equilibrium. The circumstances to-day are not, we know, like 1 those of twenty years ago, when borrowed money was being depende-dj upon much more than at present, yet caution ought to be observed for all that. Borrowed money. must. continue to be spent, but our ) administrative expenditure shiouldj be . carefully Watched, so that) we may be the better [ aible to pay interest upon the money required Ito construct railways, roads, bridges, and public buildings. If only to show the necessity for economy it might be better that we should net have these large annual surpluses.