B.—No. 2

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

14

Loan Act, to be charged to Southland to the amount of £6,000, to pay off that sum, set down as further liabilities of the Province. We may thus presume on a surplus of about £16,000 after providing for all services to the end of the year. I believe this is much more favourable than honorable Members generally expected, for it involves the need of no further borrowing ; still as a measure of precaution, as some part of the Ways and Means depends on amounts expected to be available at home, the Government may ask for authority to issue a small additional parcel of Treasury Bills, say from £20,000 to £50,000, to be used in case of need only. But lam not prepared to state that the Government have decided to make the request, and I have to add that we do not think, if the provision be made, it will be necessary to avail ourselves of it. Sir, the proposals I have submitted do not involve any large organic changes, but their object all tends to one end —to relieve the finance of the Colony of its present complicated conditions. For the first time, provision is attempted to be made, in more than name, for the services up to the end of the year. Instead of charging a portion of the previous year's expenditure against the votes for the current year, and throwing forward liabilities of this year to the next, the proposals now submitted will leave a clear field for the next year's provision. Only one liability wo have not provided for, and that is for the detention of the troops ; but we do not know what its amount will be, and it will not come in for payment during the current year. We leave the floating debt on account of Treasury Bills as it was : I do not see any reason to doubt that it may continue until it is convenient to redeem them or to convert them into a permanent loan. If it be urged that in using the balance remaining out of the Treasury Bills wo are supplementing the revenue with borrowed money, it should be remembered that the annual payment for sinking fund is so much off the liabilities of the Colony. It happens that the amount to be paid for sinking fund, together with the surplus, about equals the balance from the Treasury Bills, which we propose to employ. ANNUITIES AND LIFE ASSURANCE BILL. The Government, I am glad to say, have taken up with great cordiality the proposal I had the honour to make to this House before I took office, concerning the disposal by the State of Annuities and Life Assurances. A measure for the purpose will bo introduced, and I have only here to say that, beyond the beneficent purpose it will fulfil in encouraging provident habits amongst the people, I look to its affording great relief to the finance of the Colony —a relief the commencement of which will, I think, be felt within a year, and on which the Treasurer who makes the next yearly statement will be able to place some definite reliance in his budget. IMMIGRATION. I feel, Sir, that in dealing with questions which intimately affect the future as well as the present of the Colony, I should ill discharge my duty if I failed to make the House acquainted with the sentiments of the Government on the great question of Immigration. We recognize the large effects which in the past have resulted from direct emigration from the Mother Country, and it is certain that in the present comparative cessation of immigration we have cause for much thought, much consideration and regret. But whilst we admit that the subject requires to be dealt with, we do not see our way to deal with it this Session. Something more is needed than merely attempting to induce immigrants to come ; it is highly desirable to be able to base the inducement on tangible grounds. The great variety of the climate and resources of New Zealand should make it a suitable field for immigration for a vast variety of persons, and we are persuaded that but for the Native disturbances New Zealand would be once more a favourite field. But it is idle to suppose that with so many colonies and countries competing for immigrants, something more than merely asking immigrants to come is not necessary to obtain a number sufficient to do justice to the progress in colonization which the country ought to make. A great part of this Island yet remains to be colonized ; whilst for colonizing the last portion of the Middle Island still remaining unsettled, a Bill has been carried through the House this Session by the Superintendent of Otago. We have seen in times past what results may spring from a nucleus created by a few score of hardy, energetic, enterprising settlers; and we know that the continued maintenance of immigration has largely contributed to further progress. But the problem is only partly solved. It meets us in this form —what shape should assisted immigration continue to take? I can only lay down some conditions: amongst them, first, I would class an exceedingly careful selection of suitable persons. We are here brought to the conclusion that the proposal which has found favour in some quarters, of a scheme of immigration conducted by the Imperial and Colonial Governments jointly, is not likely to be successful. The interests of the two Governments are entirely diverse. It is the interest of the Imperial Government to rid the country of the worse part of the population: it is that of the Colony to obtain the best. Again, we have to consider that assisted immigrants should not find themselves landed on our shores without some one to look to for guidance and employment; and I will go further, and venture to lay down as a principle, that it is exceedingly desirable that the assistance rendered to the immigrant, in respect to his passage or otherwise, should be by him faithfully and rigidly repaid. But it is in the last degree objectionable to establish direct relations of a pecuniary character between the Government and a large body of individuals ; it follows that in theory the most desirable system of immigration would be one in which all pecuniary transactions were conducted by some body or association intervening between the Government and the immigrant, but in which, as respects selection or approval, the Government should have much discretion left to it. Now, Sir, I will ask the House to accept one more proposition ; that such body or association should be able to base its calculations on a computation that out of a certain number of immigrants, so many will be successful, so many, from various causes, the reverse. Here are abstract considerations which still remain to be forged into shape. I lay them before the House that it may be understood on what principle the Government come to the conclusion I am about to announce. That conclusion is, to invite outside as well as within the Colony, not only every information obtainable, but also a number of specific offers and proposals for carrying out a continued scheme