362 Auckland Provincial Government Gazette.

(11)
Government Buildings,
Wellington, 8th June, 1875.
To the Provincial Treasurer,
Auckland.

Charges for Public Works North of Auckland
made against special allowance by arrangement between Dr. Pollen and late Superintendent. Interest
chargeable for Onehunga branch, and dates from 1st
January, 1874. Account will be forwarded to Superintendent, as required by the Act.

C. T. BATKIN,
Secretary to the Treasury.

(12)
Superintendent’s Office,
Auckland, 11th June, 1875.

Sir,—

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 31st ultimo, informing me that
the payment of £728 14s., to which this province is
entitled on account of the sale of Confiscated Lands,
will not now be made.

On the 9th of April last you, in your capacity of
Colonial Secretary and Acting Premier of this
country, informed me that the sum of £728 14s.,
being the balance due up to the 27th March to this
Province on account of sales of confiscated lands,
should be immediately remitted to this Government.

On the 25th May Mr. Bowen, another member of
the New Zealand Ministry, acting for you, informed
me that the sum of £728 14s. would be paid into
the Provincial account forthwith.

I think that these positive promises should not
have been made unless it was known that they
would be fulfilled. The breach of them has involved
me in serious difficulties, and materially injures the
usefulness and respect which should attach to this
Government.

I have, &c.,
G. GREY.

The Hon. the Colonial Secretary,
Wellington.

(13)
Auckland, 17th June, 1875.
To Hon. Colonial Secretary,
Wellington.

Without previous warning a demand has been
brought against this Province for arrears of interest
on account of the Onehunga branch railway, from
1st January, 1874, and this Government is informed
that the charge for cost of interest on the Auckland
railways chargeable against capitation allowance
(which is a part of the revenue collected in the
Province, and is by law to be refunded to it) will
absorb the whole sum due to the Province on account of that allowance.

At the same time, on a technical plea, the amount
due to this province from the sale of confiscated lands
is withheld.

This is done at the moment the Provincial Government of Auckland is involved in serious pecuniary difficulties, partly from having to provide funds
to pay debts contracted by expenditure arbitrarily
ordered by Dr. Pollen, at his own will, and it is believed unlawfully, to be incurred on the goldfields,
which expenditure I think was unnecessarily large.

It is submitted that under all these circumstances
the General Government had not any equitable or
lawful right to take funds which it was bound to
pay the Province to re-imburse itself for arrears of
interest which it claimed as due on the Auckland
railway from the 1st January, 1874, which arrears
of interest are not yet admitted to be a lawful charge
upon the capitation allowance.

It would have been right, according to all usages
observed in the public service, to have first made the
claim, and when it was established to have allowed
the Provincial Government such a reasonable time
to liquidate a debt which it was not responsible for
having incurred, as might have suited its financial
arrangements, instead of at once plunging it into
pecuniary difficulties which must indirectly affect
the interests of large numbers of Her Majesty’s subjects who are entirely innocent of all wrong dealing
in a matter arising from the error of the General
Government, and whose welfare, credit, and prosperity it was, therefore, the duty of the Government
to have consulted and supported.

G. GREY.

(14)
Government Buildings,
21st June, 1875.
His Honor the Superintendent,
Auckland.

I have received your Honor’s message of the 17th
instant. The officers of the Colonial Treasury, in
the discharge of their duty, are bound to make from
the several Provinces such recoveries of payments as
are by law required to be made.

The recovery of the amount due by the Province
of Auckland on account of interest on the Onehunga
railway, of which your Honor complains, was made
in the regular course of business, and as is done in
the case of monies due by other Provinces. I have
endeavoured, as your Honor no doubt knows, to
obviate any immediate inconvenience to the Provincial Treasury arising out of this transaction, by
remitting a sum of six thousand pounds in anticipation of its due date. This Government recognises
the necessity of giving such assistance as may be
necessary for carrying on the Government of the
Province of Auckland until the case can be considered by Parliament. Any application made by your
Honor for that purpose will receive immediate
attention and consideration.

In my letter of the
31st May I explained to your Honor, as I hoped
satisfactorily, the cause of the delay in payment of the
sum of seven hundred and twenty-eight pounds fourteen
shillings on account of proceeds of sale of confiscated lands, namely, that the Commissioners of Audit
refused to issue the money on the ground that there
had been no appropriation by Parliament. As your
Honor appears to attach importance to it, and as
this sum may help to relieve the existing difficulties
of the Provincial Treasury, Ministers will take the
responsibility of making the payment as unauthorised expenditure, for which a vote must be taken in
Parliament. The money will be remitted immediately.

DANIEL POLLEN.

(15)
Auckland, 21st June, 1875.
Hon. Colonial Secretary,
Wellington.

The Six thousand pounds to which you allude has
for three months, as I have maintained, been wrongfully and unlawfully withheld from this Province.
We are under no obligation for its being now paid.
The excuse under which it was so long held back by
the General Government will have terminated by
effluxion of time at the end of this month.