TARYENTE
343
31355
reports of the Meetings of the Legislative Council held on the 13th. and 27th. September when the Estimates were dealt with. On the first of those dates I introduced the Estimates with an explanation of the probable financial position on the 31st. December 1908, and of the Estimates of revenue and Expenditure for the coming year, followed by a short exposition of the future intentions of the Government given under the main headings of its expenditure. On the 27th. the proposals of the Government were criticised in speeches by three of the Unofficial Members of the Council to which the Director of Public Works, the Captain Superintendent of Police and I replied. The Appropriation Bill was then read a second and third time and passed unanimously.
4.
Your Lordship will observe that the decrease anticipated in the total Revenue is due to four principal causes, the disappearance of profit on subsidiary coin ($120,000) foreshadowed in my confidential despatch of 23rd. July, the deletion from the Estimates of the Widows' and Orphans' Pension Fund ($249,000) upon which I decided at the unanimous request of the Contributors, a decline in the estimated returns from Land Sales ($100,000), and the reduction ($490,000), on reletting, in revenue from the Opium farm which was not ascertained until the 31st. of August when the preparation of the Estimates had reached the final stage. It was then necessary for me to consider what steps should be taken to meet the deficit on this last subhead. Taking into consideration the present and prospective indebtedness of the ...