1841-1886
OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
325
17
licensed play houses do not appear as part of the revenue—and yet the permanent means the Colony are made to meet all its liabilities and provide fairly, though not extravagantly, for the general demands of a community in a state of progressive improvement.
6. So recently as 1867, the estimated surplus of the Colony's assets over its liabilities amounted only to $24,000, whilst of those, $60,000 were unavailable coins, which no creditor could have been compelled to accept, so that practically the Colony was bankrupt. The worst feature, however, of its financial position then, was not so much the diminishing surplus, as the fact that the Colony had been steadily dropping into this insolvent state from a condition of comparative affluence. Thus at the beginning of 1865, it possessed a bona fide surplus of $298,000; at the beginning of 1866, one of only $184,000; and at the commencement of 1867, an imaginary surplus of $24,000, but practically a deficiency of nearly $30,000.
7. It must be remembered also that in 1866, when I arrived, I found the expenditure of the Colony increasing in proportion as its income was diminishing—the worst of all conditions whether for states or individuals. So much was this the case that its actual expenditure in 1865 exceeded its revenue by $94,361, and in 1866 by $167,877. The expenditure in 1867, however, was then decreased at once from $936,954 in the previous year, to $730,916, but not without leaving the military contribution in arrear. At the same time the revenue was permanently raised by means of the Stamp Ordinance, which, however, did not come into operation till late in 1867, and thus the Colony began to right itself slowly; its expenditure in 1867 being $128,584 within its revenue, and in 1868, $142,794, though in the latter year all arrears of the military contribution were paid off.
8. Probably many suppose these results could only have been produced by using the fees received from the police measure of licensing gambling houses under certain regulations. This, however, is altogether a mistake. The Colony has recovered from its difficulties, paid its current expenses, and discharged all its heavy liabilities without using for those purposes one cent of the licence fees in question. At the same time I look doubtfully on the estimate of $120,000 as excess of assets over liabilities at the end of this year. I also question the excess of assets put down for the end of 1870, viz., $111,000. I recommend you not to count on more than $30,000 really available surplus assets at the latter period.
9. It is undeniable, and I see no reason to regret it, that much assistance in other ways, as we shall presently find, has been derived by the Colony indirectly from those licence fees. It is, however, equally true that all its previous debts were paid, and its ordinary current expenditure met, as well as considerable public works carried on out of its own permanent revenue. This would appear more clearly, if I could lay before you the Colony's account with the special fund, as for brevity it may be styled. I am, therefore, sorry I cannot publish it as its details are still under consideration of Her Majesty's Government. Full information, however, on the subject is accessible to individual members of Council. You will find, however, from the estimate of the Colony's liabilities at the end of 1868, that amongst the liabilities of the Colony is inserted an amount due to the special fund of $160,005. At the end of the current year there will probably be an amount due to it of $140,000. The difference, therefore, between the latter sum and the $317,807, estimated total receipts of the licences from September, 1867, to the end of this year, would indicate the amount appropriated from that fund during more than two years and a-quarter, and that amount is $177,087.
10. Let us, however, inquire how that money has been expended. You will not find it appropriated to any selfish outlay on objects calculated to diminish the burdens or promote the convenience of the foreign residents. Expenses which should be borne by the ordinary revenue of the Colony continue to be so borne, and I may inform you that it is not merely the wish, but the positive order of Her Majesty's Government that no part of the special fund be expended in relieving you of the taxation entailed by duties which every civilized community is bound to discharge.
11. The appropriation of any part of that fund has therefore been limited: 1st, to purposes auxiliary to the police object for which the licensing system was instituted, and which alone could justify such an experiment, viz., the suppression of crime, and more especially crime such as was formerly generated by frequent contact of the ignorant and needy with the criminals of the Colony in illegal gambling haunts, where the former were tempted to join in schemes for piracies, burglaries, and theft. It has, therefore, been suggested that improvements in the constitution of the police, whether by land or water, and in all appliances for detection of crime, which could not have been undertaken by the unaided ordinary revenue of the Colony, might on that principle be temporarily borne by the special fund. Thus the cost of the Colonial Vessels, which patrol the waters of the Colony, and whose utility becomes more apparent