Extract from Public Accounts of the Government of New Zealand, 1870-71.—B. NO. 1, Page X.

Revenue for the year ending 30th June, 1871.

Customs	£745,473	7	3
Stamps	55,621	1	5
Post Office	43,086	15	0
Telegraph	22,545	16	4
Judicial Fines and Fees	31,099	18	8
Miscellaneous Fees	28,805	2	9
Incidental Receipts	9,556	4	5
	936,188	5	10
Credit in reduction of Expenditure	24,249	9	6
Treasury Bills	50,000	0	0
Sinking Fund released	5,348	0	0
Recoveries on Account of Payments made from Revenue of previous year	53,719	12	6
Recoveries from Provinces in respeet of balances at debit of Accounts under "Public Revenues Act 1867"	49,483	9	0
Recoveries from Provinces in respect of balances at debit of Accounts under "Payment to Provinces Act 1870"	12,560	18	4
Balance of Reserve Account 1869-70, returned to Revenue	17,184	0	7
Transfers from Special Fund, under Section 7 of "Appropriation Act 1870"	53,098	18	4
Carried forward	£1,201,832	14	1page 6
Brought forward	£1,201,832	14	1
Advances for Public Works repaid	9,073	6	7
Advances from Special Fund in London	66,295	6	6
Deficiency Bill	60,000	0	0
Treasury Bills renewed	200,000	0	0
	1,537,201	7	2
June 30, 1870—Cash on hand at commencement of year	55,720	17	3
	£1,592,922	4	5

The study of figures and statistics is proverbially so dry that it is hardly to be wondered the general reader should regard them with aversion; but, in dealing with these subjects, one occosionally meets with an amusing incident, or a mouthful of humbug of such exceptionally good quality as to afford an agreeable relief after the dreary monotony of statistical facts. Such a one is to be found in the preamble of the page 7 Appropriation Act, under which the £50,000 worth of Treasury Bills were issued, and £53,098 transferred from the fund of borrowed money to the accounts of the Consolidated Fund. The object of this Bill was to provide for the payment of large amounts of ordinary expenditure out of borrowed capital, and generally make ourselves comfortable at the expense of other people. Considering these circumstances, I think it will be admitted that the subject was led up to in a very elaborate and diplomatic manner, for the preamble ran as follows:—

"Most Gracious Sovereign—

"We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects in the House of Representatives in New Zealand in Parliament assembled, towards making good the supply which we have cheerfully granted to your Majesty in this Session of Parliament, have resolved to grant unto your Majesty the sums hereinafter mentioned, and do therefore most humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be enacted, by the General Assembly of New Zealand in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows."

Bearing in mind the real object of the Bill, I think we cannot but admire the versatility and grasp of mind that could conceive the idea of so happily blending loyalty and disinterested liberality towards our beloved sovereign with the more practical notion of making things pleasant to ourselves. And I have no doubt that when Hudson adopted a similar course in like circumstances, he coupled his instructions with a few moral remarks of a highly edifying character.

Further down in the list of receipts we have an entry of £66,295 6s 6d for an "Advance from Special Fund, London," and partially balanced by a similar entry on the other side of £46,000 repaid. This still leaves a balance of £20,295 6s 6d to be added to the other amounts of borrowed money tacked on to the actual revenue, and applied to purposes of general expenditure.

Then we come to Deficiency Bill £60,000, balanced by an entry on the other side of the same amount for overdraft repaid Bank of New Zealand. This apparently represents a temporary accommodation converted into a deficit. Next comes Treasury Bills renewed, £200,000, with a corresponding entry on the other side of Treasury Bills redeemed. This would appear to represent an old debt staved off for a time, indicating that when the time came to pay we found it more convenient to take an extension of credit. It seems our creditors did not object, but as these transactions, such as renewing bills and the like are rarely effected without some expense in the way of discount, commission, &c., it would be interesting to see what these amounted to in the present instance.

Passing now the accounts of disbursements we find (with the most trivial exception) that every item shows an increase, some to the extent of fifty or sixty per cent. This is a more serious affair even than the diminished revenue, for whilst that might possibly be attributed to misfortune, the increased expenditure indicates something worse. Passing by one or two accounts in which the increase has not been so great, we come to that of Public Domains and Buildings, for which we paid £2797 in 1870, and £9.300 in 1871, the increase being principally attributable to page 8 the erection of a new Government House. This figures for the sum of .£4605, though that probably only represents a part of the entire cost. In this department, too, we find the salary of Colonial Architect, £700, and a sum of £43 7s 3d also paid to that gentleman for commission. Whther he gets a commission on all works he superintends, besides the £700, is not stated, but might perhaps be inferred from the entry above quoted; and here I wonder whether the Colonial Architect enjoys the same privilege as private architects—that of taking commissions from contractors? Should such be the case, what with his fixed salary of £700 a-year, commissions from the Government and commissions from the contractors, we must admit that the Colonial architect has a really good time of it. Further on, when we come to Miscellaneous Expenditure, we shall find £125 4s, or about £2 10s a week, set down as "paid to labourer engaged by Colonial Architect," though what work may be performed in return does not appear. And under Miscellaneous we also find £1568 expended in the purchase of furniture for the Government House.

Lower down we come to Public Departments costing £45,282 in 1870 as against £53,301 in 1871, an increase of £8,019.

Then there is Law and Justice, for which we paid £54,926 in 1870, and £63,753 in 1871—an increase of £8,827. Taxpayers, however, will hardly be disposed to grumble at this extra charge, bearing in mind that it is partly attributable to expenses incurred in the Barton prosecution—that is, provided they adopt the supposition of the quality of justice dispensed amongst us having been improved by that infusion.

Next on the list stand the Post Office and Telegraph Departments, costing £145,712 in 1870 and £147,765 in 1871. The revenue obtained from these combined sources for the year under consideration was only £65,632, the loss occasioned by them is £82,133 in 1871 as contrasted with £80,355 in 1870. And here it may not be out of place to remark that whilst the accounts of Post Office and Telegraph appear as separate entries in the receipts, they are muddled together in the expenditure, so that one cannot apportion with absolute accuracy the amount of loss occasioned by each.

Next we find the Customs' Department, which figures for £37,835 in 1869-70, and £45,557 for 1870-71. Now this increase is a very remarkable one, because the amount of revenue raised was smaller. In 1870, £813,025 was collected at an expense of £37,835, whilst in 1871 it appears to have cost £45,557 to collect £745,473, so that one year 4½ per cent, defrayed the cost of collection, and the next year it jumped up to 6 per cent., or in the ratio of 33 per cent, increase.

Then comes the Miscellaneous Expenditure, which here figures for £83,270 as compared with £63,823 for the previous year, showing an increase of £29,447, or nearly 50 per cent. The entries appearing under the heading of "Miscellaneous" certainly justify the selection of that name. I cannot attempt to give them in full detail, but have picked out a few, which are as follow:— page 9

	£	s.	d.
Advance to Province of Wellington—Erection of Wanganui Bridge	8882	9	1
Stationery	648	8	1
Binding	191	18	9
Furniture and Fittings, Public Offices	259	0	1
Do do, Government Houses	187	1	3
Travelling Expenses	170	9	11
Expenses Steamer Luna	44	2	0
Rent of Ministerial Residences	70	0	0
Rent of Government Offices	211	1	0
Advertising and Printing	44	7	0
Contingencies	284	4	4
Balance of Purchase Money, Luna	7000	0	0
Travelling Expenses of His Excellency the Governor and Suite	781	14	7
Stationery	7708	16	4
Binding, Ruling, &c	3592	11	11
Printing	621	9	3
Travelling Expenses of Ministers and Officers on Public Service	943	6	9
Advertising	40	14	9
Labourer employed by Colonial Architect	125	4	0
Interest on advance to complete purchase of Luna	9	7	11
Bonus to Mr Batchelor for planting mulberry trees	100	0	0
Bonus to W. Buller for publication of Work on Birds of New Zealand on handing over his collection of birds to the Museum	300	0	0
Miscellaneous	557	10	7
Rent of Government Offices, Auckland and Wellington	505	19	2
Rent of Ministerial Residences	277	10	0
Half expenses of Steamer Luna	3535	18	3
Rent of Sir Charles Clifford's house	100	0	0
Purchase of type and material for Printing Office	45	18	0
Repairs of Government Buildings and erection of new offlees	4233	7	9
Wellington Botanical Gardens	300	0	0
Bank Commission on Remittances and Payment of interest	4270	11	9
Crown Agent's Commission	651	17	0

When I first made out a comparative table of expenditure for the years 1869-70, and 1870-71, I could not help being struck by the uniform increase of almost every item. But on coming to the account of money paid as interest on loans, it startled me to observe that it showed an apparent diminution, the figures being £411,711 for 1870, and £361,315 page 10 for 1871. Now, that I could not but regard as most remarkable. It is sufficiently notorious that our debt is growing larger, and it did appear strange that with an increasing debt, the interest should diminish. I therefore thought it worthwhile to investigate the matter, and on looking up corresponding entries for each year, I came across the following details: