The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 80a

The Public Accounts

The Public Accounts.

The Public Accounts for the June quarter are published in the Gazette of July 22nd. Among those worthy of analysis is the one relating to the Lands for Settlement account. The purchase money paid to date is as follows:—

	£	s.	d.
To March 31st, 1894	37,542	0	4
To March 31st, 1895	27,715	2	0
To March 31st, 1896	166,055	7	0
To March 31st, 1897	310,364	10	6
To June 30th, 1897	96,645	6	7
	£638,322	6	5

To this must be added accrued interest, cost of management, cutting up and roading not shown in the accounts. Taking, however, the bare cost, the interest charge at 3 ½ per cent, on the purchase is now £22,342 per annum. As against this the State has received the following sums for rents and lease fees:—

	£	s.	d.
March 31st, 1894	785	16	7
March 31st, 1895	969	13	4
March 31st, 1896	5925	2	8
March 31st, 1897	19,628	19	6
	27,309	12	1
For June quarter	6,056	12	8
Total rents, &c., for four years	£33,366	7	9

Under the conditions lessees pay rents in advance half-yearly, and as several estates have been recently thrown open the large sum received in the June quarter of this year is accounted for. But on the whole it is evident that the Colony is making a huge annual loss, and, until a proper balance-sheet and profit and loss account of each of the estates is published, it will be impossible to arrive at the true stated affairs regarding this experiment in Land Nationalisation. To those who are advocates of the system a genuine statement would provide indisputable facts to argue from, but it must be admitted that the figures in the Gazette are meagre and unsatisfactory in the highest degree.

The same remarks apply to the statements of the Cheviot account.

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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 80a

The Public Accounts

The Public Accounts.