1841-1886
595
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had no power of checking it if I thought it necessary to do so. Accordingly, I inquired how it came to happen that the requisitions did not come before the Governor in the time laid down in the Treasury instructions, and then I found it had been the practice for some years to send in the requisition for expenditure near the end of the month in which it had been incurred. The formality was gone through with great strictness for the Governor to approve of such requisitions; after that, a letter was written to the Heads of Departments informing them they were at liberty to incur the expenditure, which, practically, had been already incurred.
Of course it may occur to some of you that the Heads of Departments are responsible officers, and that whatever Treasury instructions may say, Heads of Departments will be themselves responsible. That is a very good argument as applying to Colonies with responsible Governments; there the Heads of Departments are responsible, but in a Crown Colony it is different; the Governor is expected to look carefully into the expenditure, to check it if necessary and to stop improper expenditure. Well, it will not require much exertion, it will not be a difficult thing, for Heads of Departments to comply with my wishes in that respect, and work the requisitions in accordance with the Treasury instructions. It does not follow that the Governor is bound every month to cut down the requisitions which come before him. As you all know, the very power of cutting them down and the fact of the Governor's looking after these matters in good time from month to month will often operate to check what may be needless expenditure.
With respect to the question of revenue, I have been extremely anxious to ascertain how far the revenue we have been receiving in the Colony is a healthy revenue, and how far it may be developed, if necessary, without imposing any further taxation on the Colony. Now, to take the item as they stand in the estimates laid before you, you will find our first item is the land revenue. I estimate that for the year 1878 at $200,000. The actual sum collected in the first nine months of the present year under that head was $191,000. We expect to get a sum in the three subsequent months which will raise the total to considerably over $200,000, but in making my estimate for the next year, I have confined it to the $200,000, and I do it with the assurance of the Surveyor-General that that sum is well within the mark.
I must attribute the sound state of that revenue to the admirable administration of the Department presided over by my Honourable friend the Surveyor General, Mr. PRICE. The improvements at the other side of the harbour, and the drainage, the many useful works he has in hand, and the good sites he has laid out for buildings along the new roads he has constructed, have no doubt in a most healthy manner stimulated the prosperity of the Colony and helped to give us this increasing income.
The next item is rents exclusive of land. I estimate that at a few thousand dollars less than actually received in 1876. It then reached $61,446. I estimate it for next year at $58,000, but it will probably reach larger figure.
I now come to the licences. Of these licences, the important ones