8.—6

VIII

table showing, among other things, the expenditure and liabilities of each vote authorized in the Schedule of the Loan Act of 1882 will be published with this Statement. This table will, I think, enable honourable members clearly to understand the position, of the fund. I shall ask the House to permit the issue of deficiency bills to the extent of £100,000 ; this will be sufficient until about the beginning of September. Since the Three Million Loan was authorized the expenditure out of the Public Works Fund has been for 1882-83, £897,037; last year it was .-£1,409,588; making a total expenditure for the two years upon public works of £2,306,625; but this amount includes £154,127 advanced for purchase of rails for the open lines, which will be repaid by the Working Eailways Department as soon as the rails arrive and are handed over. The net expenditure for the. two years was therefore £2,152,498, or an annual average expenditure for the two years of £1,076,249, inclusive of £106,398 expended under the Eoads and Bridges Construction Act; so that the average expenditure a little exceeds the one million a year which the Government estimated the colony might safely spend : and this expenditure would have been £260,000 less than it is had not the Government taken upon themselves, as I have already pointed out, to order sleepers, rails, and rolling-stock in anticipation of the requirements of the current year. And now, Mr. Hamlin, I should like to say a few words about the depression which prevails in the colony. In the first place, it does not arise, to any appreciable extent, either from defective laws, or errors of administration on the part of the Government. It does not arise from the withdrawal of capital, or from the distrust of capitalists. There is no sign of such distrust to be found anywhere, so far as I know. Capital can now be obtained in any amount, and upon reasonable terms, for any undertaking which will give a fair return for the outlay incurred. Capital has not, as a matter of fact, been driven from our shores either by our system of direct taxation, or by the nature of our land laws, or by any other cause. Far more capital has flowed into the colony during the last three years than in any equal period of our history.. Nor does the depression arise from the large amount of interest we have to pay upon our public debt and private borrowings. We can, lam satisfied, pay with ease all the interest we have undertaken to pay, because the employment of the borrowed capital has enabled, and is enabling, us to produce far more than the share our sleeping-partners draw in the way of interest: and this must be evident to any one who will look at the amount of our exports, and remember that this is the surplus after our population has supplied itself with all the chief necessaries of life —and especially when the enormous direct advantage to the producers which accrues from our railways is considered—a saving to the community of at least two millions per annum. The present depression is traceable ultimately to three causes: First, the habits of extravagance arising out of the wonderful prosperity which, with only slight and temporary checks, we have enjoyed for the last thirteen years —habits which our real circumstances never justified us in indulging, if indeed any circumstances could be their justification. This extravagance is now, I rejoice to think, becoming fully recognized as an eviJ, and successfully combated. Secondly, the class of distributers aiid middlemen is far too numerous in proportion to our population. There are, no doubt, too many merchants, traders, and agents. Numbers of these are trading upon capital borrowed upon terms which make it impossible for them to do business upon a sound basis, and the consequence is that they interfere with and ruin the legitimate business of the responsible merchant and trader. It is generally admitted by all competent authorities that in the year 1882 over-importation of goods to the value of at least one million sterling had taken place ; and I find, upon inquiry, that the stocks in the bonded warehouses were practically equal in value in December, 1883, to those in December, 1882, so that the relief which was hoped for last year in the reduction of stocks has failed.us for the present. Thirdly, the extraordinarily low prices which have obtained during the last year for our chief articles of export —wool and grain. It is said that wool and grain are never low in price at the same time, and this is, no doubt, true as, a general rule. Unfortunately, however,

Tabic No. 7