8.—2

9

I have said in my preceding remarks that, as respects several of the loans authorized, there are certain balances yet remaining to be raised. I will now inform the Committee to what extent the liability of the colony will be increased when these balances are raised. The following table represents the total existing debt, the sums authorized to be raised but not yet raised, and the aggregate total which the public debt will reach when the whole of the loans now authorized shall have been raised :—

GROSS PUBLIC DEBT, COLONIAL AND PROVINICAL ALL LOANS AUTHORIZED ARE RAISED.

The annual charge in respect of the total prospective public debt of £19,380,906 will be £925,140 10s. for interest, and £110,635 ss. for Sinking Furd, or in all £1,035,775 155., as follows :— £ s. d. Total annual charge for Interest on Public Debt, as in Table A... 835,150 10 0 To be raised— Immigration and Public Works LoanImperial Guaranteed, £800,000 at 4 percent. ... ... £32,000 0 O Colonial Issue, £12,100 at 5 per cent. 605 0 0 Loan of 1873, £500,000 at 5 per cent. 25,000 0 0 Defence Loan, £179,700 at 5 per cent. ... 8,985 0 0 General Purposes, £463,000 at 5 per cent. 23,150 0 0 89,740 0 0 North Otago Loan, £5,000 at 5 per cent. ... ... 250 0 0 Total annual charge for Interest ... ... ... £925,140 10 0 Total annual charge for Sinking Fund... ... ... 110,635 5 0 Total annual charge for Interest and Sinking Fund on prospective Public Debt ... ... ... ...£1,035,775 15 0 But I must remind the Committee that on that amount of indebtedness being attained, and that annual charge incurred, the whole of the cash balance now available, plus the proceeds of the loans yet to raise, or in all a sum of £8,877,696 has yet to be expended; and here I must again refer to the sums set apart as Sinking Funds. The sum which the colony is now annually adding to its investments of Sinking Fund amounts in respect of the colonial debt, as it stood on the 30th June last, to £110,635 55.; and assuming two years to elapse before the balance of the several loans are raised, the accumulated Sinking Funds will amount on the 30th June, 1877, to, say, £1,400,000, and the total prospective debt of £19,380,906 will have been practically reduced to £17,980,906. In concluding my remarks upon the Public Debt and on the Sinking Funds applicable to its redemption, it may be as well to state that the repayment of several of the loans is secured on the proceeds of special blocks of land set apart for the purpose. The loans contracted under " The Wellington Debts Act, 1871" (£75,000), the North Otago District Loan of 1872 (£70,000), and "The Westland Loan Act, 1873" (£50,000), are of this character; and in the case of the loan B. 2.-2

Table A, page 2.

Total Gross Public Debt on the 30th June, 1875 To be raised— Immigration and Public Works Loan— Loan of 1870— Guaranteed by Imperial Government ... £800,000 0 0 Colonial Issue ... ... ... 12,100 0 0 Loan of 1873 ... ... ... 500,000 0 0 £ s. d. 17,671,106 0 0 £1,312,100 0 0 General Purposes Loan ... ... £463,000 0 0 Less Bank Advances ... ... ... 200,000 0 0 263,000 0 0 Defence Loan ... ,.. ... £179,700 0 0 Less Bank Advances... ... ... 50,000 0 0 129,700 0 0 North Otago District Public Works Loan ... ... ... 5,000 0 0 1,709,800 0 0 Total Debt, Colonial and Provincial, when all Loans now authorized are raised ... £19,380,906 0 0