Taranaki herald. THURSDAY, JULY 25; 1907. THE EXHIBITION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13484, 25 July 1907, Page 4

Taranaki herald. THURSDAY, JULY 25; 1907. THE EXHIBITION.

In his Financial Statement the Colonial Treasurer stated that the cost of the recent exhibition at Christclurrch to the Consolidated Fund was £75,500, from which sum has to be deducted £15,000 for recoveries, bringing • the net cost down to £60,500, and this may be reduced' 'by further recoveries. A search through the Estimates appears to show that the cost was really considerably greater. The principal vote last year was to the Colonial Secretary's Department, and it amounted to £64,500, all Of which was expended. Then a sum of £7500 was voted to the Railway Department, but it; is, not . stated how much of this was spent.. Then the Department of Agriculture spent £3747, the Colonial Museum authorities £3525, the Mines Department £2613, the Marine Department £1710, the Tourist and Health Kesorts Department. £1692, Police £1144, Miscellaneous (for entertainment of guests of the colony) £1004, and minpr amounts brought the, total up to £83,084, without counting what the Railway Department spent upon its exhibit, and that must have been something considerable. Then votes totalling, £5250 are asked for in this year's Estimates. Even this is ftot the whole cost, because it includes nothing, for the Public Works Department, whose exhibit was presumably provided for out of borrowed money, so that the £60,500 mentioned by Sir Joseph Ward as the net cost to the State would seem to be an under-esti-mate. As a set-off against this Sir Joseph stated that the Exhibition had brought so many, thousands of pounds to the Railway Department, the Customs Department, and to the general trade of the colony in the shape of expenditure by visitors. Probably these estimates are sanguine ones. The sum set down as gain to the Railway Department does not seem to allow for the cost of earning it, and this was probably a fairly heavy proportion. , The Customs revenue increased at nearly every port in the, colony, so that only a small proportion of the increase ought to be credited to the Exhibition. Then the estimate of expenditure of visitors can only.be the merest guess, and the net gain from this source is only from the excess of oversea visitors during last summer over those of the previous corresponding period. It may be said that it is too late now to dispute the question of the actual cost of the Exhibition to tlje colony, but we see no use in painting the results in too roseate hues. It would be .interesting to have an exact return made of the actual cost to the" various ' departments and the actual direct receipts from recoveries, etc. The indirect gain can only be estimated, and the es-

timates will be taken- for what tliey are worth.. The above extracts are^ from tli^e Estimates' for the current year only, and the amounts do not include .£II,OOO spent during 1905-6 out of a vote of £25,000 by the Office of Industries and Commerce. .V,Sir Joseph Ward seems -to 1 have, added: the 1«£64,500 spent" hy ihe Colonial Secretary's Depattnieiit last year to the £11,000 spent in )tho; previous year by the Office >ef and Commerce., a'uet ".tJbn^-.ja^iye^at his total o,f MYs,so(j, \ gverlooting all the other depfirtmental-^Otes.