100

In the Survey Department the over expenditure amounts to
£534 14s. 9d., sufficient provision not having been made for the
increased pressure on this department consequent on the large amount
of land sales. A sum of £218 15s., however, which has been paid as
refund of rents returned in consequence of under-acreage ascertained
on survey, ought, strictly speaking, to have been deducted from the Land
Revenue Account, which had received the benefit of it, instead of having
been placed to this account. A further deduction of £43 18s. 7d. must
also be made for instruments and stationery, charged against this,
instead of the Geological Survey Department.

On Charitable Aid there is an excess of £288 5s. 3d. The maintenance
of lunatics for the nine months has been a heavy drag on this
fund. A portion of the excess, however, will be recovered; one of these
unfortunate individuals, for whom extra expense was incurred, being
possessed of private estate. A new arrangement has been made by
which charitable aid is dispensed through the chief Immigration Officer,
instead of the Provincial Secretary, whose other duties are clearly not of
a nature to assist him in considering applications for assistance under
this head.

In the early part of the present year I drew the attention of the
Executive to the apparently expensive management of the hospital, and
an alteration was immediately made, by which this was lessened.
Beyond regular fixed rations nothing is now allowed either to Patients
or to the Servants of the hospital without an order from the Surgeon.
The over expenditure for the nine months amounts to £39 9s. 3d., and
there is a sum outstanding, due by Patients, amounting to upwards of
£900. It is to be hoped that some means may be found for overcoming
the apparent apathy of the public in regard to this institution, which
can never be worked by a political body, such as the Executive
Government of the Province, either as efficiently or as economically as
it would be by a Board appointed for the purpose by a body of
subscribers.

On the Geological Survey there is apparently an unexpended
balance of £43 18s. 7d. This is incorrect, however, that sum being
retained to meet the account referred to as having been charged against
survey.

In the branch devoted to Miscellaneous Expenditure the vote for
Printing and Stationery has still proved inadequate, the excess being
£373 14s.

The vote for Dog Collars has proved insufficient for the demand,
and there is here an over expenditure of £109 7s. 2d.

The Fire Brigade has drawn, since the commencement of the
financial year, £66 13s. 4d. of the vote of £100; and £50 due to them
on vote, 1861-62, paid while the Council was in session; thus making an
over expenditure of £16 13s. 4d.

The over expenditure on the Law Library is in reality £5, the
remaining £200 having been paid into the Treasury as a contribution,
as shown in the “Incidental Receipts.”

The excess on the vote for the Provincial Council Library is the
price of certain maps published by an American house and bought here,
the remainder of the vote having been sent to England.

The grant for public amusements was appropriated thus:—£100
for the Queen’s plate, to the Canterbury Jockey Club; £50 for the
Lyttelton regatta; the same amount to Timaru; and £25 each to
Akaroa, Kaiapoi, and Rangiora, making in all £275, being £25 in
excess of the vote.

Of the unvoted expenditure the largest sums are £1,500 for the