18 PROVINCE OF WESTLAND GAZETTE.

balance of £14,572 for which provision had to be made. This has been met to the extent of £2000 by a larger sum than was anticipated being realised out of the Loan, and made available for our assistance by an Act passed during the last session of the General Assembly; further aid was afforded by the Government making a special grant of £10,000 in addition to the ordinary Capitation allowance; of this sum £3300 has been received up to the 31st December.

The position of the Province at the end of the Financial Year may be roughly stated as follows:—Actual Receipts during the year, £83,194; Actual Expenditure, £87,609; Outstanding Accounts, £3,919, leaving a deficiency of £833, and allowing a margin of accounts which have not been rendered or finally closed, we may consider our liabilities on the 31st December, 1874, as not exceeding £9000. Against this we have available assets in the balance of the £10,000 special grant from Government, equal to £6700, and due from Nelson for maintenance of prisoners, £264, making in all £6964, thus leaving about £2000 as our total liability after providing for carrying on the business of the Province during the past year.

It is worthy of note that a sum of £18,355 has been expended on Roads, Bridges and Buildings during the year, as against an expenditure on similar works of £10,679 in 1873; and I am glad to state that our payments have been made with a promptness which it has been impossible for the Treasury to do for some years past. This, as I have already shewn, has been mainly owing to the assistance rendered to us by the General Government, as our ordinary revenue could not possibly have enabled us to carry on. With respect to the deficiency in the Land Revenue, I may state that during the past month a sum of £1250 has been realised from sales which it was anticipated would have been brought to account during last year, and so have further reduced our liability by that amount.

I think that under the circumstances we are entitled to consider that our position financially is better than might have been expected from the difficulties we had to encounter at the beginning of the year.

Having now reviewed the past may be as well that we should look for a moment at our prospects for the present year, and a careful examination of our estimated Receipts and Expenditure most clearly shows that we must rely on further assistance from the Colonial Government to enable us satisfactorily to carry on the Government of the Province. That this will be forthcoming in some form or another, I have but little doubt, as it has now been recognised by the General Assembly, that those Provinces of New Zealand who have not got a sufficient available Land Fund to enable them to carry on the administration of their Government, cannot be left with credit to the Colony to struggle on, getting deeper into debt while other Provinces are abounding in wealth. During the last Session of the General Assembly this was dealt with temporarily by the passing of the “Provincial Public Works Advances Act,” and the “Otago Provincial Public Works Advances Act,” but it is probable that some more definite action will be taken during the next sitting of the Assembly which will place this question on a more satisfactory footing.

As most of you are already aware the efforts of the Members for the District, in conjunction with myself, to carry out the Resolutions passed by you last Session, to obtain a loan from the General Government for