FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1587, 14 August 1885, Page 2

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

_ « (supplementary.) In Committee of Supply on Wednesday, 12th Angnst, 1-85, by the Colonial Treasurer the Hon. Sir Julius Vogel— Mr Hamlin : It will be remembered that the proposals of the Imdgot resulted in an •mtieip.-.ted sn*plus of £'32,158, this result- was arrived {it after provision was made for paying off £500,000 of the deficit of ISB3--4, '-5G.500 on account of the first years 'classification of the Civil Service, aiid £75.000 foi subsidies to local bodies. TUe jlouse declined to make, the changes iv the tariff which were re.omm. ftded, which would have left as an i addition to the Customs i- venue ol'i abut £70,000. Certain alte; a/ions j -. which were mado in the Rill providing ' for an amendment of the succession duties will involve a reduction of the Stamp Revenue of about £90.00t>. 1 1 do not feel it safe also to rely on q:iit« I SO -niiioh l-evemu from the railways a» j was anticipated, they will roaiiso more if the p: i<*e of is raise:!. A*-, it. -'_ 1 think it safer to bo prepared for a less ; amount of. revenue tliaii Was aot-ici- i pated, tlie loss from this source I set down at* -847,000, which means less receipts to the extent of £06,000, and less, expenditure to the sum of £19,000. We have therefore the budget di«-t. trie i to tlie extent of it. The Customs Revenue £70,000 ; Stamps, £89,000 ; Railways (net including reduction of | expenditure and receipts! £47,000 ; total £147.000. The supplementary j estimates will not I anticipate exceed j £12,000, so that I shall have to pro vide in all from various sources £159, j 000 to make up tha amount. The j isu .plus to which I have previously i referred at once provides £82,000. aud it has already been announced that the Governmeiit intend not to provide for the deficit of ISS;. *4. This year I i shall ask that the deficiency hills a! | ready authorised for the deficit be j extended until 31st. June, l8c!7. It. ! has also been stated that we propose- to | charge the Public Works Fund £350. 000 on account of extern::! Jei'en. c, the statements which have been made as to falling off of revenue are grossly inaccurate. For cvnmplc I have seen it stated that far the three items of Customs, Railways and Stamps, the revenue factually collected for the four months ending July 81st is less by £7,000 than the estimated re-enup, the fact, however, is that on these hems the loss in the estimated amount fi >r the four months is only £21,000. Some .parts of tha receipts, however, j included Custom Revenue, paid in anticipation of increased duties, viewing all the conditio!"? r have thought it prudent to proviut f'»r tho diminished revenues whicli I have already stated although these reductions are notably larger , than on the receipts of the first four months. It is with. regret I announce -that the Government do not feel themselves justified in proceeding with the classification of the Civil. Service this year seeing the extent to which their anticipations of revenue have been disturbed they do not think it. wou'd, be a.coeptabie to the House or to the country that they should undertake for the next few years the liability to additional expenditure which classification in any shape would uudou'tedly entail. The House must, however, remember that a certain amount, of increases on pn.e.nt salaries is demanded, in bare justice to rainy ill-paid ollicers iasto.ul of the ..t>,f>oo increased they propose ton*-!:. they will u7sa for £2,500 ; one thousand pounds of the aiH-tint they pvopo«\> shall bo , allocated to tho post otlioe and the j balance to other departments, bnt in no case to officers whose salaries exceed i £250 a year. The Covet nment fe.el as

strongly a* possible the desirability of •etrenching the expoiHit"v° to tlie itmost extent possible cot: si:- nt with efficiency. As I pointed out when I nade the Financial Statement, the •ostly nature of the civil service 1 lepends hugely on trie conditions with which ofii?evs appointments are hedged ; round, what with leaves of absence j md allowances the dispensing with of; officers is attended with extra expe-n- ; tii ture for a considered ■> period, and ' the cases are numeron*? in wlrch j officers dispensed with ti'tnr ha el; into the service : of course the right of officers already in tho service cannot j be interfered with, but we shall bring j in a bill providing for different terms ! of engagement for officers taken i'^to i the service after the passage thereof J The amalgamation of large departments j will be another soutce of economy j which should be ktpt in mind when ! Und." Stvretaries retire. Another j \ l.in wo have in viow wbi'-b *wi!l con- j dnce to the economy and > th'-iency is to train np cadets into an acquaintance with duties of several departments with a view of amalgamating duties of officers in different parts of the country, and lessening their number. We j have anxiously searched the estimates j over, with the object of finding items i for saving expenditure. I regret we | are not able to do much, we are willing j to tv.iuee vote for A.C. and defence hv €I^oo, and I think we may save some thousands in tiie expenditure of oth'*r -1 'j_-;»rtineuts, wi'ii it, however, taking loss votes than tiio\w set down. It would be neces.siry instead of mak ing the property tax three farthings to i add an eighth, and to make it seven j eighths of a penny. I may observe also that under tin* new property j assessment it is expected that £10,000 will he a tided to the amount of property tax estimated in the Finan.-iil Statement. We require to make up ,159.000 for demolished revtnue and for supplementary estimates in the various items iv. aid of this to which I have separately referred niay now be summed up as follows: — Surplus shown by financial statement. £32,000; pai-t of dotis-'it 18S3-81, postponed, .€50,000; external defence charged to public works fund, £2."). 00 ) ; saving in ; A.C. and def-nc-5, £1000; reduction in vote for civii service classification, -.-{•000: property tax underestimated, -.10.000; property tax, additional *• of a penny, £17.000; total, £178.000. This will leave a surplus of £19.000 after providing for the supplementary estimates to the extent of £12.000, and T hope they will uot exceed that | .Tin. not. I would have preferred ! acL'ti*- in- fo ;hp arrangements proposed j by the Budget, and I believe that to ■■ have do_e so would have b'cu more i for tlie interest of the Colony. The ! substitute however of an additional 1 . i'hth of a ponnv o the rn.pe -tv tax ! is not very onerous am witu its a: i we i have the right to expect a small i surplus at the end of the year.