THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume II, Issue 70, 16 September 1865, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

[From the Wellington Independent]

First, dealing with the past, we find that the estimate of the revenue for the last financial period of two years, extending from Ist July, 1863, to 30th June, 1865, has been very nearly realised, the estimated amount having been £1,493,708, and the actual revenue £1,438.367. This is a very trifling difference, and shows that the present and past Colonial Treasurers have calculated very closely. The Tariff passed m December last was expected to have given an addition to the revenue of £180,000 per annum, but during the present year it is not anticipated

that more than £130,000 will be realised. As, however, the Tariff is to be revised, though without any special increase of duties, it may be hoped that under a new and better system a larger sum will be obtained. In the two years already alluded to the authorised expenditure amounted to £953,718, and the actual expenditure to £83-1*623, thus showing an apparent saving of £119,000. This saving is more apparent than real, because the supple mentary expenditure during the same period amounted to £160,769. The Colonial Treasurer considers it very unsatisfactory that such a large amount of unauthorised expenditure should have occurred, and proposes to introduce a Bill to control this m the future. That portion of the speech which deals with the application of Surplus Revenue is very important. "If the savings on votes of each year," says Mr. Fitzherbert, "had been carried to next year's Revenue account, the irregularity of having incurred unauthorised expenditure would still have remained, but it would have been unaccompanied by any disturbance of finance." This, however, has not been done, as a large proportion of the so-called surplus has been given to the provinces, while the unauthorised expenditure has partly been carried to Loan account and partly provided for by other means. All this it is proposed to alter. Not only is the surplus, when it occurs, to be carried to next year's Revenue account and subjected to appropriation, instead of being distributed as a dividend amongst the provinces, but the present three-eighths of Customs hitherto allocated to the latter, is to be treated for the future as Colonial Revenue, and aid is to be given to the J provinces m a different shape. The Territorial Revenue is left intact, and while the whole of the Customs Revenue is taken by the General Government, it is proposed to make provision for Provincial expenditure and contributions m aid of the provinces by annual appropriations. This appears to come to the same thing m the end, but m reality there is a considerable difference involved. Hitherto, under any circumstances, the provinces have been sure of the three-eighths Customs, whatever it might amount to ; whereas under the proposed system, the appropriations will be great or small, according to the state of the colony. In a time of prosperity and peace liberal votes could be given, while at other periods, when the colony is threatened with internal revolts and the prospect of a heavy expenditure m suppressing them, these votes will of course be less. The principle involved m this proposal is perfectly sound, and it is satisfactory to learn, that m applying it, as ! much liberality as possible will be shown towards the provinces. In a later part of his speech, Air. Fitzherbert proposed appropriations for the provinces, equivalent to one-half of the Customs Revenue. But most people will ask the questions : — " How does the Colony stand ? How much do we owe ? How is it to be paid ? "What is the i estimated expenditure for 1865-6 ? and how is | it to be provided for ? " Mr. Fitzherbert replies i ta these queries very fully. On the 30th of June last, the total expenditure had reached the sum of £2,396,911.- At that date there was a general making up of accounts, which i^ave the following | results. One million's worth, of. short dated debentures had been issued m the previous i December, of which, a portion had been sold, realising £791,904. This was a judicious and successful proceeding, as it obviated the necessity of prematurely forcing the remainder of the ' Three Million Loan on the market at an unfavorable time. Then the Imperial debt has been nearly adjusted by the payment of £500,000 m colonial securities, and the overdraught to the Bank of £918,000 " has," to quote Mr. Fitzherbert, " been practically restored." Thus the credit of the Colony now stands much higher than before ; arrangements have been made for gradual liquidation of its debts, and there is still a sum of £603,089 m debentures of the Three Million Loan, available for future appropriation. That m one respect is "how we stand," but it by no means fully explains our position. The expenditure during 1862 and 1863, reached the enormous sum of £900,000. It was little wonder, after getting this lion's share, that Auckland wanted Separation, when nothing more was forthcoming. The Colony was the sucked orange, and the sooner it could be thrown away the better. Of course Auckland has to pay back that portion of the money which has been expended for its •• permanent advantage," but meantime the credit of the Colony has been pledged for that, as well as other portions of the Loan. Nor is this aIL The first expenditure involved the necessity of further outlay, to which the Government is to some extent bound. During the six months .ending on the 30th June last, a sum of £320,000, was expended m the Auckland Province, while during the sarae time the expenditure m the Provinces of Wellington, Taranaki, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, was

only £324,000, that is, scarcely more m all these five Provinces put together, than m Auckland alone. " If," as Mr. Fitzherbert goes on to say, *' we deduct £23,837 paid away m Wellington for Steam Postal Services for the Colony, then we find that there has been considerably more expended m Auckland than m these other five principal Provinces." It appears to us that Auckland has already had more than enough, but some people are always getting, and so it is proposed that a considerable portion of the remainder of the Three Million Loan shall be expended m that Province ; the the Government we presume, being tied down to this by previous pledges.

We come next to the estimated expenditure for 1865-66, and the means by which it is to be provided. The "extraordinary expenditure," including amongst other items, " Military Settlers" and " Defence Force," is estimated at £636,907, while the ordinary expenditure, including "appropriations" for the Provinces, cannot be set down at less than £950,000, thus giving a grand total of expenditure required during the present financial year of £1,556,907. Mr. Fitzherbert's plan of providing this million and a half of money is very simple. The ordinary revenue from every source, including the new Stamp duty and the whole of the Customs duties, he estimates at £943.500. This leaves a deficit of £643,907, which will be nearly met by the sale of the remaining debentures of the three million loan, amounting to £603, 059. No fresh loans are to be negotiated, and the remainder of the last is to be made to go asjfar as possible. In case the Government should be pushed, it proposes asking the Legislature for power to raise money by the issue of Treasury Bills m anticipation of revenue.

Crinoline. — Mr. Higgins (the Jacob Omnium, of the Times) has a letter m the Pall Mall Gazette on the present extravagant and dangerous style of female dress. "This curse of crinoline." he says, "is fast increasing upon us. It dredges up the cigar ends and saliva m our streets, it excludes one-third of the population from our churches, it over-crowds our private and public carriages and our places of private and public resort. Manifestly absurd and inconvenient as it is, the vanity of the scraggy and ill-formed, and the vested interests of the dressmaking trade, are sufficient to uphold and promote it. More money is now spent m the exorbitant materials and fashion of women's dress than ever was spent before; more false hair is woven into their heads ; more rouge and pearl powder are smeared on their faces ; their dresses are becoming daily and nightly lower, wider, longer, and less decorous, and every successive year the coroner records more ' Deaths by Crinoline.' A girl's ball dress m 1865 costs from iB to £15, that of a married women from £15 to £50, and a single well-sustained and spirited evening's dancing not unfrequently demolishes the complicated structure altogether the very first time it is worn. With care and good luck, a girl who does not dance very violently may wear her dress twice — certainly not more than three times. After each dance ball-rooms are now-a-days strewn with fragments of the fray, torn off m the mdea ; and a temporary accident ward is invariably rigged up m the neighbourhood of the supper-room, whither the wounded may be led for surgical advice and assistance. An experienced female operator presides over this hospital, supported by two or three nimble - lingered maids, and well-provided with pins, needles, and sharp scissors for amputations. Here cheering cordials and soups are obtained from the buffet for the faint and disheartened; here, the slightly wounded are rapidly pinned up and sent back to the scene of action ; here, the seriously disabled are tenderly and strongly basted together, so as to go through the rest of the evening, at least with decency ; and here the fatal shears have often to be freely lised ; after which, Miserriraa may be seen m her slip stealing slyly back to her carriage, through a line of grinning footmen, marvellously reduced m circumference, the sixty or seventy yards of tulle or tarlatane, of which her skirts were originally composed, have literally been whirled and trampled off her back by wild polkers." The Love of Home. — It is only shallowminded pretenders who either make distinguished origin a matter of personal merit or obscure origin a matter of personal reproach. A man who is not ashamed of himself need not be ashamed of his early condition. It did not happen to me to be born m a log cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were born m a log cabin, raised among the snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hill, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist ; I make it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, and the narrations and incidents which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode. — Daniel Webster.

A Weeping Image Worked by Steam. — The Pungola, of Milau, publishes an explanation of the miracle of the statue of the Magdalen which stands m one of the populous suburbs of that city, and which was m the habit of weeping from time to time on account of the impieties of the day. The authorities having caused the statue, formed of baked clay, to be examined, discovered m its interior a reservoir for water, intended to be heated. Whenever the clergy wished to make the Magdalen weep, they had a fire lighted beneath the reservoir, which caused the hot water to evaporate and rise into the upper parts of* the statue, and the steam there, being condensed, was directed towards the eyes by means of pipes.