The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-07-21
Finance Accounts.

In OR last issue appeared the Quarterly
! return Of the Revenue and Expenditure Of
the Kingdom published by the Minister OF
| Finance in accordance with the provisions
| Of the Act Of last session. usually known As
[ the Audit Act. Contrasting this statement
I with those which are periodically pub
/ Ii-hcd by the Governments Of other coun-
tries. the first thing that strikes Us is the
wholly unnecessary amount Of detail in
troduced into it. For this, the Act itself
must be blamed, a. it distinctly enforces
the publication Of IA statement IN detdH
Of the receipts and expenditures, etc" If
the letter Of this law were TO be COM
piled with in accordance with what a BUSH
ness man would understand by the phrase
"a statement in detail" the Minister Of
Finance would need To publish something
like a full transcript Of the treasury books.
No doubt snch a statement a we have be-
fore Us was what the Legislature had in
view when passing the clause, but even in
this, we have "a totally unnecessary, as
well IA unusual, amount Of detail under
the head Of expenditure. We have rushed
from one extreme 10 another as human ma
ture l. 20 prone To do. heretofore, eX-
cent when the Biennial Reports of the
Finance Department made their appear
auce no information was ever vouchsafed
a to the state Of the public purse. En-
quiries at the Treasury by newspaper men
were met by a reference 10 the Biennial
Reports and 10y a distinct refusal to furnish
any information a to the current business
of the department.
Perhaps the most noticeable feature OF
the financial statistics published to-day is
the addcudum showing the total receipts
and expenditures since the 3lst of March.
1852, the close OF the last biennial period.
From this it appears that just about one
half Of the appropriations made by the Leg
islature had already been expended in the
fifteen months ending 3Oth June Otwith
standing the fact that a large proportion of
those appropriations were made chargeable
on the loan which is not yet realized. This
shows the buoyancy Of the ordinary reve-
nue. of the country which has, up to the
present time almost exclusively borne the
burden of this large expenditure. The pre-
dictiOn made i'm the columns Of this paper
in May, 1882 that the actual revenue for the
curreQ1r Edsttmattdn presented to the Legfsla-
ture 10y something like $500, 900 appears
likely to be fulfilled.
No comparative statement of the re-
ttlIl- illA ~ ItLblibit9 VI lit Juilt IuilltI
Of last year is published with these tables.
On enquiry Of the Registrar of Public Ac-
counts as TO the reason for this we learn
that the manner i'm which the financial af-
fairs Of the country were carried on previ-
Gus to the AuIit Act coming into operation
was so different from that introduced by
the act that a legitimate comparison Ofthis
kind cannot be made until after the act has
been in operation At whole year. The Reg
istraT has, however, favored us with the
figures showing the amounts covered into
the treasury during the June quarter of
1Ss2, which stand as follows: Customs,
S97,41G -; fines, penalties and costs,
1854 10; revenue stamps, S4,039; brands,
SO; making a total of S1O1, S29 %. From
the Interior Department, internal taxes
and Government realizatiOns, nothing
reached the treasury in that quarter.
There is much said about the Government
not having lone this and done that, but
u glance at these tables should convince
every one that in proportion to the means
at its disposal the Government has been
very active, and that, thanks to the con-
stantly increasing revenue the country en-
joys, much more has already been accom-
plished than could a year ago nave reason
ably been expected.