, 1880-05-22

The President, IN tue DIdlb
of Budget with Money Bills would hrstly
recdfFas two points, OF no greaG lmpor-
tanca however, in the Draft OF budget
viz: Item @ ], the amounts dor 1ne Dullu-
ings Inspector $3.50 and Sl92 nave Deen
summed up with S492 instead OF S941;
this. difference goes, through the whole
Exnenditure side, the total sum of which
should be s239, 423 instead OF S239,3f3;
the other error is in Item g. Interest on
the loan from the Statetreasury, when Is
mt down with a.. sum of $4,000 instead OF
a6. d00. this would reduce the total-expen-
diture to s239, 223. Otherwise this Dra1C
ia like all the other Drafts of Budget that
have been before the Council; the items
of revenue are those once fixed by laws OF
ordinances: it is not here, as III budgets
for other places, that the varying times
reouire new or altered taXatlon; inc
alterations of any note that do occur are
those concerning luctuating sources OF
revenue from indirect taxation such as the
import- and in a particular degree the
exnort.duty. and other items dependent
On the nroduction of the island. The same
il the case with. the Expenditure, where
there, is nothing new or beyond what is
reonired by laws, ordinances or special
needful administrative purposes. Tie
would not enter on any individual item,
but he would merely allude to the general
unsatisfactory state OF the lSland, Wneh
the Budgets year after year shew an
excess of expenditure above the revenue.
The real and main cause OF this ullSatlSlac-
tory state is no other than the eXtraordllla-
nv succession of dry years from 1911 to
1877 to which all other causes can be-
traced back. The position OF the Island
- - ox-onJ1a un1nr this RnUOn Of
a15Oo76 te-eover an expenditure of
Sl93.764 besides a guarantee for the Cen
trail Factory of S45,459, II this, too,
following upon years of serious deficiencies
in the public finances. This position Is so
serious that we may we'll ask ourselves:
what is to be the end of this But then,
there is another question, are people fully
aware of the state Of the Island; has 1T
been considered in full earnest by those
mostly and immediately concerned; do
they ask themselves, whether nothing
can be lone to lessen or remove the evil
He doubted it, when he looked upon the
quiet and EASY way in which things move
on; now and then the subject may be
touched upon in a general way, but only
to calm down again very soon after;
beyond that there is no outward sign that
the matter is viewed in it's proper light;
hence, he could only come to the conclu-
sion that the gravity of the situation Is
far from being appreciated to its full extent;
he suspected, that people were disposed
to make their minds easy by an underlined
notion that the Mothercountry must come
to the rescue, if it come to the worst with
us. He for his part did not doubt that the
MOthercoun.ry would come to the rescue
so far as to protect property and persons;
but there is no legal or moral obligation
on it to go further. But it appeared to
him that people do not take the trouble
to consider seriously what would be the
consequences, if their vague hopes should
turn out to be erroneous or perhaps great
" exaggerated. He considered it very
probable, that without further direct
assistance from the Mother Country one
consequence would be great changes IN
the pr0prietorship of Estates and one
would expect that to prevent such changes,
the present owners would exert themselves
to the utmost. No one could pretend that
there could be q shadow of obligation on
the Home Government to uphold indlvl-
duals in the possession of their properties,
whatever their duty may be with respect
to the maintenance of public order 1t
more is to be expected, it must be from
feelings of sympathy and kindness, but
then ON the other hand. those who reckon
upon such feelings, must on their part
prove that they will do everything in their
power to stave off the impending ruin, and
that they are willing with heart and soul