B.—2a.

9

£ «. d. The Estimated Revenue appears ... 3,699,026 0 0 The Expenditure ... .. ... 4,410,238 0 0 The deficiency therefore is ... ... 711,212 0 0 If the Revenue, as stated above, falls short of the estimated amount, as is not improbable, that deficiency will be proportionally increased. I also lay before the House a Table marked No. 2, showing, without the Land Eund, the Estimated Revenue and Expenditure for the same period. This is a very important Table, and from it will be gathered at a glance our true financial position, as we are at present conducting the business of the country. It will be observed that the present daily expenditure of the Colony is in excess of its Estimated Revenue —minus the Land Revenue—£l,926. I feel it my duty to call the attention of honorable gentlemen to this state of things, and to ask for their earnest consideration of the subject. CONCLUSION. Sir, in making this Statement, I do so with feelings of gr&it diffidence. My position here is not of my own seeking, nor is the business I am now engaged in that towards which my tastes and inclinations would willingly have led me. So far as my humble abilities have served to guide me, I have cheerfully given my most earnest attention, with as much time as I had at my disposal, to the subject of our finance. My future aim Avill be to endeavour to arrange a system that may prove stable, that will secure a state of equilibrium between our revenue and our expenditure, that will be of a character sufficiently fair not to excite the cupidity of one portion of the country or the envy of another; and, as this House in its wisdom has determined, and the Colony at large has agreed in that determination, to try to bring the whole of this country —differing as it does in common interests, in the manner of its colonization, and in its topographical features —under one united Government, so will it be the object of my colleagues and myself to assist in the realization of this effort by simplifying and regulating our too abundant partnership accounts, and introducing a system of united finance, without which a wholesome united Government is impossible. 2—B. 2a.