THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

114

the Town Commissioners with more ample
powers than they at present possess.
However greatly the communications between
this city and different parts of the Province
have within the last few years been improved
by roads and steam, still the time, I submit, has
arrived for availing ourselves of the electric
telegraph, more especially as there is now every
prospect that very shortly, telegraphic communication will be established between this and
the Middle Island. You will accordingly find
a sum of £5,000 placed on the estimates for a
telegraphic line between Wellington and Wanganui, and I hope next year we shall be in a
position to extend it to the Wairarapa.

Although no further steps have been taken in
England in reference to the proposed railway,
and although nothing further is likely to be
done until the termination of hostilities in this
Province—now happily not far off, still I thought
it my duty to instruct the Provincial Engineer,
as soon as he arrived, to commence
a survey of the line between this city and the
Hutt; his report, plan, and estimate of the cost
will, I hope, be ready to lay before you in the
course of a few days.

As the Loan of £50,000 negotiated by the
Union Bank of Australia becomes payable on
the 1st of January, 1867, a Bill will be submitted to you authorising me to redeem it by raising another loan of precisely similar amount
for a term of twenty years, and further, establishing a sinking fund, sufficient to pay it off
within that time. The sinking fund proposed
is simply that already in operation for the redemption of the loan of £25,000. The Bill
makes it imperative upon the Government to
hand over to the Commissioners on the 1st of
January in each year the sum of £1,000, to be invested by them, together with the interest to
accrue from the investment thereof, in mortgages on the security of real or freehold property, or in the purchase of the debentures
themselves.

To show the result of such sinking fund it is
simply necessary to state that if the sums thus
appropriated to it and the interest accruing from
them be kept closely invested up, the £25,000
will be paid off in thirteen years, the £50,000 in
eighteen years. The Province borrows at seven
per cent. and lends at ten per cent.

By setting aside for thirteen years an annual
sum of £1,000, you pay off the loan of £25,000
—by appropriating a similar annual sum for
eighteen years, you redeem the loan of £50,000;
in other words, a payment out of the Provincial
revenue by small annual instalments of
£13,000 extinguishes the Loan of £25,000 and a
payment of £18,000 wipes out the Loan of
£50,000.

If it be objected to this scheme that the Commissioners may find it difficult to keep the
funds at their disposal closely invested up, the
reply is that I trust the Government of this
Province will never be in a position to be obliged
to refuse the Commissioners the payment of
sums set apart for the sinking fund, several
months or a year before they are fairly demandable. As to any difficulty in obtaining investment, it seems sufficient to refer to your building societies, to the proposed increase in the
number of your trust and loan companies, and
especially to the fact that the rate of interest on
money in the old established colonies of Australia is, at the present time, certainly as high
if not much higher than it is in this Colony.

With respect to the erection of Provincial
Government offices, no steps have yet been
taken, as I propose following the same course
as on the former occasion—of proposing that the
question of the selection of the site should be
referred to a select committee of the Council.

The Trustees of the Wesleyan Reserve having
received full powers from the Conference to sell
it, I have, subject to your sanction, agreed to
purchase it for the sum of £3,500, being at the
rate of £50 per acre.

It will be satisfactory to you to learn that my

Estimate of Revenue for the financial year

ended on the 31st of March was considerably
exceeded. The estimate being (including
balances in hand) £105,355, and the actual
receipts £112,882—the chief increase being in
the Territorial Revenue which yielded £49,195,
instead of £36,000. The General Government
having advanced out of the Three Million Loan
the sum of £16,000 for the construction of the
Waitotara Road, the total receipts for the year
were £128,282. Your appropriations for the
same period amounted to £118,502, and the
actual expenditure in round numbers to £124,000.
Though there was thus a balance of about
£4,500 on the 1st of April, there have during
the last quarter been considerable over-drafts at
the Banks, in consequence of remittances to
England for payment of the dividends, and on
account of the Wharf. These have, however,
within the last few days been repaid.

Though I have no doubt complaints will be
made that certain votes have not been carried
out, yet it cannot be urged that the revenue
has not been expended, and I scarcely think
that it will be made by you a matter of reproach
against the Government that they have hesitated to involve the Province in debt for the
purpose of carrying out appropriations in excess
of the revenue.

As I have often felt that the Council by voting
an expenditure largely in excess of the estimated
receipts places the Executive in a false and unfair
position, I trust I may be permitted to offer one
or two remarks in deprecation of the practice.
I venture respectfully to submit that the true
constitutional course in regard to the appropriation of the revenue is for the Legislature to hold the
Executive solely responsible for the estimate of
revenue—to accept their estimate, and then to
exercise their undoubted right to appropriate,
distribute, and apportion that revenue in any way
they may deem most conducive to the public
interests; for though it is true that by the Constitution Act every money vote must be proposed
by the Superintendent, it is quite competent to
the Council to vary or reject in toto any vote thus
submitted, and by addresses to request the Superintendent to substitute other and wholly different
appropriations.

It is equally competent to the Council to increase the revenue by additional taxation; but it
is scarcely fair for it to say to the Executive, we
accept your estimate of the revenue, we pass all
the votes you propose, which will absorb all your
estimated receipts, but we further insist upon
making appropriations for which we are not prepared to make any provision whatever.

The result of such a practice simply is to
place the Executive apparently in a state of
antagonism to the Legislature, to hold out
hopes to the community which cannot be realised, and to render the Government liable to
the charges of ignoring and setting aside the
decision of the representatives of the people.

As the opening address affords me the best
opportunity of giving to the Province at large
full information as to its financial condition—the
past expenditure and the appropriations proposed by the Government for the current year—I
shall still adhere to the practice I have
hitherto followed, of giving in detail my estimate
of the revenue and expenditure.

Taking the balances in the hands of the
Treasurer on the 1st at £4,600, I estimate the
gross Customs receipts at £30,000; licenses,
publicans and auctioneers, at £2,400; pilotage,
at £1,500; assessment on sheep, at £800; incidental receipts, at £1,600; toll-bar, £1,500;
wharfage and warehouse rent, £1,500; rates on
land, at £5,000; giving a total ordinary revenue of
£48,800. I estimate the proceeds of the sale of
reclaimed land at £10,000; Hawke’s Bay interest, £2,600; refund of cost of lighthouse, £11,000;
purchase money of Provincial Government
buildings, £9,175; refund of advances to General Government, £1,200; interest on Treasury bills, £1,000; proceeds of Wanganui
Bridge debentures, £3,750; Customs surplus