8.—6.

XXXVI

ESTIMATED BESULTS AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAE 1897-98. The results of the six months' revenue already received enable me to submit my figures with confidence, and I shall now place before you the position which I anticipate we shall achieve by the 31st March next: — Estimated revenue for 1897-98 ... £4,793,000 Estimated expenditure for 1897-98 ... ... ... .... 4,622,843 Excess revenue ... ... ... ... ■•• 170,157 Balance from last year ... ... ... ...£354,286 Less contribution in aid of the Public Works Fund ... 300,000 54,286 Surplus, 31st March, 1898 ... ... ... ... £224,443 As I have already stated, we shall require £120,000 towards our pension scheme. The necessity for a brick building for the parliamentary library has long been admitted. The risk from fire is very great, and the destruction of our magnificent library would be a national calamity. The buoyancy of the revenue permitting it, a portion of the surplus could not be put to a better use. Plans have been ordered to be prepared forthwith, and the work, if approved by Parliament, will be put in hand so as to be completed before next session, I propose to devote £7,000 for this purpose. These two items will absorb £127,000, leaving £97,443 to meet the votes to be asked for when the usual supplementary estimates are sent down. SEPAEATE ACCOUNTS. Honourable members are frequently complaining of what they call the complexity of the public accounts ; and I must myself confess that they are getting unwieldy. In 1878 the Public Eevenues Act provided for only two funds—namely, "The Consolidated Fund" and "The Public Works Fund"; but subsequent legislation has gradually piled up separate account upon separate account until at the present time, in addition to the Consolidated Fund (which contains five separate accounts) and the Public Works Fund, there are six outside accounts which have separate ways and means of their own. With the object of lessening the number of separate accounts and simplifying our statements, I have decided to ask authority to amalgamate the Lands Improvement Account and the Native Land Purchase Account with the Public Works Fund, so as to enable the balances on the 31st March last of these accounts to be transferred to the Public Works Fund as from that date. The expenditure in each case can be shown separately in the Public Works Fund, and this will, I feel sure, meet any objection honourable members might have to the proposed, amalgamation. WHAT THE CENSUS DISCLOSES. The cost of taking and compiling the census of 1896 was less by one halfpenny per head than that of the census of 1891, and the accuracy and expedition shown reflects the greatest credit upon the Registrar-General and the census staff. The census disclosed the fact that the population increased by 76,702 persons, or at the rate of 12 - 24 per cent., in five years, as against the increase for the quinquennium 1886-91, which was the lowest in the record of the colony, 48,176, or 8 - 33 per cent. The net increase of population between March, 1886, and April, 1891, was 48,176, but the natural increase by excess of births over deaths was 64,122, so that the loss to the colony by excess of departures over arrivals during the period amounted to 15,946. -But between April, 1891, and April, 1896, when the total increase was 76,702 persons, there was an excess of arrivals over departures of 18,029 persons. The population of the North Island increased by 59,176 souls in the quinquennium 1891-96, being a percentage of 21-03. The increase in the South Island was only 17,525, or soB per cent. The accommodation of the people has greatly improved, the increase