2.
I estimate the Revenue at 1,004,240 Dollars and the expenditure at 932,286 Dollars including the Civil List; which would leave an available balance of $74,240 Dollars on the 31st December 1878.
This anticipated balance is independent of the balance I now have on Colonial account amounting to $270,000. It is of course independent also of the assets of the Special Fund which amounts to $310,082.
Since my arrival here in April last, I have felt it necessary to give close attention to the Financial business of the Colony. When in that month the completed accounts of the Year 1876 were put into my hands, I found that the revenue ($885,358) was less than that of the preceding year ($896,624) by $11,266, and that the expenditure of 1876 ($902,500) was in excess of the revenue of the same year, and was also in excess, by $32,677, of the expenditure of the preceding year. In other words, the last annual accounts which had been prepared and Audited a few weeks before my arrival showed that the Revenue was falling.