Revenue and Expenditure.

The first portion of the revenue and expenditure figures are taken from the Comptroller's balance-sheets of the colony, commencing as they do with the year 1840—a date that has not often appeared in the former portion of this condensed abstract. The terms used by Mr. Fitzgerald are here employed. Shillings and pence are omitted. In dealing with this portion of the financial history of the colony the years have been given from 1840 to 1852 inclusive, when the Receipts in aid" ceased to appear in the balance-sheets. In 1853 the accounts are tabulated by the Registrar-General, and from this date onwards will be used, as more convenient than those compiled by the Audit Office, running as they do from January to December, and not confusing the general reader with the varying dates of financial periods.

The "Receipts in aid" in the earlier years comprise advances by the Government of New South Wales, and receipts from the Imperial Treasury in the form of Parliamentary grants and drafts on the commissariat chest. They ceased at the date when the Constitution Act was passed. It is curious to compare the figures of the Audit Office in the "Balance-sheets of the colony," with those issued by the Registrar-General from Dr. Thomson's "Story of New Zealand"—the Registrar-General in a memorandum telling us—"Which is stated by Sir George Grey to have been supplied from official sources when he was Governor." The "Receipts in aid," according to the Audit Office, amount to £297,240, whereas in Thomson's tables they are set down as £1,517,967, being Parliamentary grants of £304,432, and appropriations from the commissariat chest of £1,203,536.

There are no expenditure returns prior to 1874 in the Registrar-General's statistical summary, and though there are returns of the expenditure of the various provinces prior to that date, as far back as 1853 in the columns of the statistics, they are so entangled with the accounts of the general government, that those who have tried to see their way through the maze have become be-wildered or abandoned the task in disgust. The late Mr. Macandrew some years since asked Sir Julius Vogel if he could find his way through the tangle, but Sir Julius, after spending several days over the matter, gave it up in hopeless perplexity.

The expenditure "out of revenue" for the years 1884, 5, 6, 7, 8, are exclusive charges for sinking fund, which was met by the issue of debentures to an equivalent amount.

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Dates.	Revenue.	Receipts in Aid.	Expenditure.
1840	£2,757	£18,000	£21,741
1841	41,402	8,500	40,101
1842	35,759	13,972	51,697
1843	26,235	9,563	41,127
1844	17,221	28,477	38,627
1845	14,003	38,745	38,841
1846	25,852	35,674	48,587
1847	42.493	37,753	87,722
1848	52,339	49,250	89,501
1849	44,909	21,067	86,850
1850	56,009	11,500	64,992
1851	69,915	9,200	75,276
1852	74,942	15,538	88,738
	£503,996	£297,239	£773,800

Revenue.		Expenditure.
		Out of Revenue.	Out of Loan.
1856	£188,329
1860	464,739
1865	1,525,827
1870	1,384,639
1874	3,068,612	2,960,710	2,725,893
1875	2,813,928	3,431,972	3,107,867
1876	3,580,294	4,305,337	2,066,104
1877	3,916,023	3,822,425	1,827,904
1878	4,167,889	4,365,275	1,287,869
1879	4,134,905	3,845,035	1,973,239
1880	3,285,042	4,019,850	2,228,990
1881	3,757,493	3,675,797	1,069,927
1882	3,917,160	3,824,735	821,976
1883	3,871,267	3,924,005	1,191,784
1884	3,707,488	3,853,628	1,565,748
1885	3,859,996	4,045,901	1,178,884
1886	3,688,016	4,170,465	1,583,723
1887	3,463,495	3,954,290	1,487,850
1888	4,109,815	3,962,912	739,674
1889