297
also.
the information required as to the receipts from the Licence fees, and the balance remaining after deduction of the amounts, which Mr Rennie considered chargeable under present instructions against the Licensing fund.
2. To observe however that Mr. Rennie incidentally omits to comply with the instruction desiring him to state the gross amount received from that source. I may therefore here mention that it is $367,166 whilst the present balance $221,733. Hence it appears that only $145,433 in nearly two years has been absorbed on local expenditure.
3. Mr Rennie makes an excellent suggestion for determining in the simplest, if not also the only practicable mode of ascertaining it, the contribution fairly chargeable to the Special Licence fund for maintenance of order and the suppression of illegal gambling and crime. This suggestion is to take as the standard of what the unaided Colonial Revenue can support, the Police expenditure of the colony in 1866, the year immediately preceding the establishment of the new Licensing system. He then proposes to make the Special License fund contribute any excess in subsequent years over the amount of the Police expenditure of 1866.
The circumstances of the colony in 1866 were also favourable, as it was a year when the expenditure was not higher than previously.
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