110
ba
1
20
amount of revenue outstanding, and of advances to be recovered. The Auditor General estimates that if ever the assets exceed the liabilities by less than £20,000, although the Colony might be quite solvent, it would be unable to meet its engagements in ready money. The available balance on the 1st January last cannot therefore, in my opinion, at the very outside be estimated at more than £73,000.
5. The revenue for the current year is estimated at £121,791, and a sum of £129,248 has been voted to meet the expenses of the year. If these figures be borne out the result at the close of the current year will stand somewhat as follows:-
Available balance 1st January, 1864, £ 73,000
Revenue for 1864, 121,791
Total £ 194,791
Expenditure for 1864, 129,248
Available balance 1st January, 1865, £ 65,543
6. In the expenditure for the current year as estimated above no provision whatever has been made for the Mint. The home expenditure for this work is put down by Mr. Kinder at over £35,000 and the building here will, the Surveyor General considers, not cost less than £10,000, irrespective of the cost of the site which will, it is hoped, be recovered by the sale of land in the neighbourhood. The total cost of the undertaking cannot, I think, be put down at less than £50,000. If the votes for the year are all expended, there will still remain due at the close of the year for the completion of the new Convict Gaol at Stone Cutters' Island, and the Post Office in Victoria over £14,500, irrespective of the cost of fittings for the former work, not yet estimated for. On the other hand if the sums voted for works and buildings in the Estimates for this year are not all expended the balance in hand at the close of the year will be larger, but the sums required for the completion of the works in progress will then be correspondingly increased so that no real difference will be made in the present statement.
7. The estimated available balance at the close of this year will therefore be entirely absorbed in the completion of the undertakings at present sanctioned by Your Grace and in progress.
8. The revenue for next year from every source except premium on land sales cannot safely be estimated at more than £115,000. It amounted last year exclusive of premiums to £118,726, in 1862 to £101,801, and in 1861 to £90,866. The ordinary fixed expenditure of the Colony, exclusive of all outlay on public works, amounts at present to over £85,000. The Surveyor General informs me that the maintenance in repair of the existing works, Buildings, Roads, &c., without the commencement of a new undertaking of any description would cost £20,000 a year. This would make a total ordinary expenditure of £105,000 against a revenue of £115,000—leaving a margin of only £10,000 a year to meet all contingencies.
9. In the estimated revenue of £115,000 no account is taken of probable premiums on land sales, because, on the other side of the account, new public works are excluded from the expenditure. But if land be sold, new public works must be undertaken by the Government, as this forms one of the conditions of sale: and the one item therefore may fairly be placed against the other.
10. The expenditure of £105,000 estimated above does not include the establishment for the Mint, which will probably cost in salaries alone £10,000 a year, because it is hoped that when the undertaking is once started it will be self-supporting. If it is not, it will be a failure and should be stopped. However it may not prove self-supporting at the very outset and in view of such a contingency the available balance ought not to be reduced too low.
11. Such being the present financial position of the Colony and its prospects for 1865, I confess that I cannot see where a military contribution of £20,000 for next year is to come from. If it be insisted on it can only be obtained either by the suspension of the Mint works, or by the imposition of a special military contribution tax. The former would, in my opinion, be most impolitic, and the latter alternative would, I think, be peculiarly hard upon the Colony at the present moment; for I cannot help feeling that even assuming the fairness of requiring the Colony to contribute towards its military expenditure, the circumstances connected with the establishment of the Mint entitle it at present to special consideration and exemption. The Colony at its own sole expense and risk is investing £50,000 in an undertaking which will benefit largely British Commercial interests throughout the East, and effect a direct saving to the Imperial Exchequer of not less than £37,500 per annum. But the Colony itself does not expect to derive any direct addition to its revenue from this large expenditure even if this scheme should be entirely successful: for it would be most unwise to attempt to levy any larger seignorage than would suffice to cover the working expenses, and repay the cost of starting the undertaking.
12. It is doubtless more convenient that at this distance the proposed Mint should be under Colonial rather than Imperial control, and if it pay for itself it is of little importance in a pecuniary point of view whether it be an Imperial or a Colonial Establishment; but as the advantages anticipated from it are so much more Imperial than local, the advance of £50,000, and the risk whatever that may be, are obligations which in strict fairness belong rather to the Imperial than the Colonial Government.
13. Besides, if in a Colony like Hongkong, where Imperial and Colonial interests are so mixed up together, the system of "give and take" is to be no longer recognised and mutual accommodation is, in such case, to be reduced to a mere matter of account, other questions as pointed out by Mr. Mercer in his Despatch, Separate, of 2nd December last, besides military expenditure, will necessarily present themselves for adjustment, and it will not, I anticipate, be difficult to prove from the records of our Courts and Prisons that a considerable proportion of our large Establishments for the administration of justice and for the custody of criminals is fairly chargeable to the Imperial Government.
14. These considerations are submitted as pertinent even assuming the perfect fairness of calling upon the Colony for a military contribution, but I should wish, in offering them, to guard against being supposed to entertain myself any other opinion on this subject than that submitted in my Despatch of the 21st May last.
15. I shall hope for an early intimation of Your Grace's final decision on the subject of this Despatch as the Estimates for next year should be sent home from the Colony not later than August next.
I have, &c.
(Signed) HERCULES G. R. ROBINSON.
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.,
&c., &c.,
&c.
21
110
ba
1
20
amount of revenue outstanding, and of advances to be recovered. The Auditor General estimates that if ever the assets exceed the liabilities by less than £20,000, although the Colony might be quite solrent, it would be unable to meet its engagements in ready money. The available balance on the 1st January last cannot therefore, in my opinion, at the very outside be estimated at more than £73,000.
5. The revenue for the current year is estimated at £121,791, and a sum of £129,248 has been voted to meet the expenses of the year. If these figures be borne out the result at the close of the current year will stand somewhat as follows:-
Available balance 1st January, 1864, Revenue for 1864,...
Expenditure for 1864,
Available balance 1st January, 1865,
£ 73,000
121,791
Total £.
.194,791 129,248
£ 65,543
6. In the expenditure for the current year as estimated above no provision whatever has been made for the Mint. The home expenditure for this work is put down by Mr. Kinder at over £35,000 and the building here will, the Surveyor General considers, not cost less than £10,000, irrespective of the cost of the site which will, it is hoped, be recovered by the sale of land in the neighbourhood. The total cost of the undertaking cannot, I think, be put down at less than £50,000. If the votes for the year are all expended, there will still remain due at the close of the year for the completion of the new Convict Gaol at Stone Cutters' Island, and the Post Office in Victoria over £14,500, irrespective of the cost of fittings for the former work, not yet estimated for. On the other hand if the sums voted for works and buildings in the Estimates for this year are not all expended the balance in hand at the close of the year will be larger, but the sums required for the completion of the works in progress will then be correspondingly increased so that no real difference will be made in the present statement.
7. The estimated available balance at the close of this year will therefore be entirely absorbed in the completion of the undertakings at present sanctioned by Your Grace and in progress.
8.The revenue for next year from every source except premium on land sales cannot safely be estimated at more than £115,000. It amounted last year exclusive of premiums The ordinary fixed to £118,726, in 1862 to £101,801, and in 1861 to £90,866. expenditure of the Colony, exclusive of all outlay on public works, amounts at present to over £85,000. The Surveyor General informs ine that the maintenance in repair of the existing works, Buildings, Roads, &c., without the commencement of a new undertaking This would make a total ordinary of any description would cost £20,000 a year. expenditure of £105,000 against a revenue of £115,000-leaving a margin of only £10,000 a year to meet all contingencies.
9. In the estimated revenue of £115,000 no account is taken of probable premiums on land sales, because, on the other side of the account, new public works are excluded from the expenditure. But if land be sold, new public works must be undertaken by the Government, as this forms one of the conditions of sale: and the one item therefore may fairly be placed against the other.
10. The expenditure of £105,000 estimated above does not include the establishment for the Mint, which will probably cost in salaries alone £10,000 a year, because it is hoped that when the undertaking is once started it will be self supporting. If it is not, it will be a failure and should be stopped. However it may not prove self supporting at the very outset and in view of such a contingency the available balance ought not to be reduced too low.
11. Such being the present financial position of the Colony and its prospects for 1865, I confess that I cannot see where a military contribution of £20,000 for next year is to come from. If it be insisted on it can only be obtained either by the suspension of the The former Mint works, or by the imposition of a special military contribution tex. would, in my opinion, be most impolitic, and the latter alternative would, I think, be peculiarly hard upon the Colony at the present moment; for I cannot help feeling that even assuming the fairness of requiring the Colony to contribute towards its military expenditure, the circumstances connected with the establishment of the Mint entitle it at present to special consideration and exemption. The Colony at its own sole expense and risk is investing £50,000 in an undertaking which will benefit largely British Commercial interests throughout the East, and effect a direct saving to the Imperial Exchequer of not less than £37,500 per annum. But the Colony itself does not expect to derive any direct
timent
21
addition to its revenue from this large expenditure even if this scheme should be entirely successful: for it would be most unwise to attempt to levy any larger seignorage than would suffice to cover the working expenses, and repay the cost of starting the undertaking. 12. It is doubtless more convenient that at this distance the proposed Mint should be under Colonial rather than Imperial control, and if it pay for itself it is of little importance in a pecuniary point of view whether it be an Imperial or a Colonial Establishment; but as the advantages anticipated from it are so much more Imperial than local, the advance of £50,000, and the risk whatever that may be, are obligations which in strict fairness belong rather to the Imperial than the Colonial Government.
13. Besides, if in a Colony Bike Hongkong, where Imperial and Colonial interests are so mixed up together, the system of "give and take" is to be no longer recognised and mutual accommodation is, in such case, to be reduced to a mere matter of account, other questions as pointed out by Mr. Mercer in his Despatch, Separate, of 2nd December last, besides military expenditure, will necessarily present themselves for adjustinent, and it will not, I anticipate, be difficult to prove from the records of our Courts and Prisons that a considerable proportion of our large Establishments for the administration of justice and for the custody of criminals is fairly chargeable to the Imperial Government.
14. These considerations are submitted as pertinent even assuming the perfect fairness of calling upon the Colony for a military contribution, but I should wish, in offering them, to guard against being supposed to entertain myself any other opinion on this subject than that submitted in my Despatch of the 21st May last.
15. I shall hope for an early intimation of Your Grace's final decision on the subject of this Despatch as the Estimates for next year should be sent home from the Colony not later than August next.
I have, &c.
(Signed) HERCULES G. R. ROBINSON.
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.,
&c., &c.,
&c.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.