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up $350,000 of the Assets of the Colony and involved this Government in an annual expenditure of more than $62,000, without making any allowance for wear and tear of Machinery or interest on capital sunk. It may therefore be conceded, I think, that unless there be some marked and reliable increase to the Revenue from other sources, the ordinary means of the Colony could not meet another similar burden.
Some have been induced to infer that the Colonial Revenue had increased from £120,000 in 1863 to £163,000 in 1866, and states that the Revenue had increased. I respectfully call in question the accuracy of these figures in the sense intended - which I presume to be, that the Colony had a larger amount of Ordinary annual Revenue at its disposal in 1866 than in 1863.
It is nevertheless easy to see that in 1866 the Revenue was £45,000 more than in 1863.
Hence it becomes important to consider how the calculation is made. I observe that in proof of this, Your Grace contrasts the Revenue of 1863 with that of 1866 to show that it would be unsafe for Her Majesty's Government to shape their policy towards this Colony from reliance on any deduction from the above figures. The latter are perfectly correct, but the inference drawn from them, however natural, will be found on examination to be actually incorrect.