CO129-298 - Governor Sir Blake Administrator Major Gen Gascoigne - 1900 [3-4] — Page 290

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Crown Agents December account was $ 3,129,000. The difference

is $ 20,000 not $ 140,000. Of this $ 20,000, ₫ 13,000 is ac-

counted for by Public Works Extraordinary.

3. As regards paragraph 5,it was so antici-

pated. The information referred to in paragraph 8 of your

despatch No.258 of 15th.November was given in my despatch No.

52 of 10th. February, 1900.

4. I shall direct that in future the instruct-

ion conveyed in paragraphs 7 and 8 of your despatch shall be

carried out. My view of the situation was that you desired

that the Estimated Expenditure should be kept within the Es-

timated Revenue exclusive of any balance expected on the cur-

rent year's accounts. At the same time I could not ignore the

almost certainty that the current accounts would close with a

balance of about 400,000. I therefore intimated that when

the balance was assured and the annual accounts closed I pro-

posed to take Supplementary Votes for certain Public Works

not covered in the Estimates. Thus of the 57,000 that will

be required for additional Waterworks 27,000 only was in-

cluded in the Estimate. The intention being to take a Supple-

mentary Vote for Public Works Extraordinary for which a ba-

lance of about $ 400,000 would be available from the current

accounts, exclusive of the Estimated balance of $ 105,620

shown on the Estimates.

5. The