Need for local Services undertaken by the State. FINANCE. GENERAL REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. THE therefore, is only to HE functions of Government are much alike in all the provinces of Australasia, and, therefore, it is only be expected that similar items of expenditure will be found in the budgets of each. The chief difference is the extent to which local requirements are provided for out of general revenue. In most of the Colonies the provision for local improvements is a matter very largely of local concern, but in New South Wales and Western Australia the central government still charges itself with the construction of public works of purely local character, especially in rural districts, hence the appearance in the statements of expenditure of these Colonies of items of large amount which find no parallel in the other Colonies. So far as New South Wales is concerned, the system is on all hands agreed to be wasteful, and open to much abuse, and there is some hope that a comprehensive system of local government may be passed into law at no distant. date. All the Governments assist the local administrations by grants proportionate to the sum raised locally, and these subsidies are in some sense a set-off against the revenues which the State receives from public lands. Railway communications, electric telegraphs, and postal services are almost entirely in the hands of the State, and also, in some instances, water conservation, water supply, and sewerage works, and it is on account of the expenses of such services that the Australasian budgets mount up to such large figures. STATE REVENUE. 325 The total income of the Australasian Governments for the year Public Income. 1891-2 amounted to £30,270,416, and their expenditure to £31,140,273, leaving an apparent deficit of £869,857. The revenue returns of all the Colonies are for the fiscal year only, and take no account of balances carried over from a previous year. This is an important consideration in dealing with Australasian finances, as the expenditure set against a particular year is quite irrespective of whether it rightly forms a charge against that year, or partly also against other years. The revenue and expenditure for each of the Colonies were as follows: : The New South Wales and Western Australian returns are Fiscal years. for the year ending December, 1892; those of Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia, are for the fiscal year ending with June, 1892. The New Zealand figures are for the year ending March 31, 1893, and the Tasmanian return is for the year which closed with December, 1891. REVENUE. revenue, The revenue is mainly derived from taxation, which produced Sources of £12,182,771, and from public services, such as railways, post and telegraphs, which yielded £12,103,270; in all £24,286,041, or 326 SOURCES OF REVENUE. over 80 per cent. of the total revenue. The following table shows the revenue of each Colony, arranged under the various heads : New South Wales.. 2,677,890 771,897 3,416,496 650,635 2,214,062 770,124 10,501,104 Victoria Queensland.. South Australia... 615,597❘ 197,272 1,229,598 2,388,961 783,446 3,098,251 484,635 519,379 454,900 7,729,572 1,145,660 290,161 1,025,769 214,898 626,465 170,763 | 3,473,716 205,812 241,963 251,381 2,741,623 Western Australia.. 276,554 23,169 94,258 35,572 78,628 35,708 543,889 376,130 126,009 168,046 73,150 85,233 54,631 883,193 1,642,590 867,435 1,174,099 232,051 300,675 180,463 4,397,313 Tasmania New Zealand Total, Australasia 9,123,382 3,059,389 10,206,517 1,896,753 4,066,405 1,917,970 | 30,270,416 The revenue per head averaged £7 14s. 4d., and ranged from £5 18s. 7d. for Tasmania, to £9 14s. 4d. for Western Australia. The rate for each Colony, subdivided into the classification adopted in the previous table, was as follows: : Revenue from taxation. The Colonies differ considerably in respect to the proportion of revenue raised by taxation. Thus, in New Zealand, 57.1, and in Tasmania, 56.9 per cent. of the revenue passing through the hands TAXATION. of the Government is due to this source, while in New South Wales the proportion only reaches 32.8 per cent.; the comparison, however, is only interesting as showing the large territorial revenue which New South Wales is fortunate enough to possess. indirect The amount of taxation collected during 1891-2 is shown in Direct and the following table. The revenue has been divided into direct taxation. and indirect, according to the usually accepted classification :— 327 years. It is interesting to compare these figures with the returns of Increase in ten ten years ago, which are given below. Much the same features are displayed by all the Colonies. The shrinkage of other revenue, and the failure of land sales, have necessitated the adoption of direct taxation, while the Customs Revenue has also increased as compared with the population, not through the increased purchasing power of the people, but by reason of the extension of the number of dutiable articles and increase in the duties levied. The returns for 1881 were : 328 Methods of taxation. Sources of revenue. STAMP DUTIES AND LAND TAX. Customs, Excise, and Stamp Duties, with License Fees are the ordinary forms of taxation in each Colony; in addition to these, in Victoria a land tax on large estates has been imposed since 1877, a land and dividend tax in Tasmania since 1880, a land and income tax in South Australia since 1884, a dividend tax in Queensland since 1890, while New Zealand, after trying a land and property tax, now levies a graduated land and income tax. The land and property tax, however, was in force during part of the year 1892, as the subjoined table will show. In New South Wales several attempts have been made to introduce land and income taxes, and, quite recently, an income tax was proposed by the Government, but, so far, parliamentary sanction to this system of taxation has not been obtained. The following is a statement of the amount derived from various sources of direct taxation in each of the Colonies during 1891–2 : New Zealand............ 426,373 Property Tax, £17,126; Land Western Australia Tasmania ............. Revenue not proportionate to tariffs. The Colony with the highest revenue from import duties as compared with population is Western Australia, South Australia being at the other end of the scale. A false impression is apt to be gathered from a bare statement of the amounts per head, as it may be assumed that the provinces obtaining the least revenue are the most lightly taxed, while those with large revenues are heavily burthened. The truth is often the reverse of this. Where the taxation is obtained through the custom house, a low consumption of taxable goods under a high tariff-such as is the case in |