The Colony’s Financial Position. 87 
of the most successful Chancellors of the Exchequer England has had. “The 
training,” he said—Gladstone is meant of course,—“ the training I received 
from Sir R. Peel was that the right and sound principle was to estimate expendi- 
ture liberally, to estimate revenue carefully, to make each year pay its own 
expenses, and to take care that your charge is not greater than your income ”’ 
So far as the finances of our Government are concerned, I think it will be 
found a safe rule to budget for a surplus of from £4,000 to £5,000. 
What will be the state of the surplus when the Receiver General closes his 
books as at 31st March last, I am not in a position to say ; but the very few 
persons who take any interest in these matters must have noticed that the 
balance has swollen very rapidly during the past two years. The pace, for all 
the world, seems too hot. This cannot be commendable when there are lots 
of other things to do with the taxpayers’ money than to accumulate it with 
muser-like fondness. Now at the end of 1907-1908 the excess of the 
colony's assets over its liabilities was shown to be $160,122. Although 
during the next year the revenue included an extraordinary receipt of 
$11,225 made up of various unclaimed deposits that had been trans- 
ferred, the surplus increased by only $4,112—$164,235, to drop the 
next year to $133,314, there having been a deficit of $30,920 as the 
result of the transactions of the year 1909-10. It was the first time 
since 1897-98 that the expenditure had exceeded the revenue. Since 
then there has been a remarkable turn for the better: there has been 
a large accretion to the floating balance. The year 1910-11 saw ‘the 
revenue exceed the expenditure by close upon $100,00U—$97,646, to 
be exact. This added to the balance of the year before brought the 
accumulated surpluses to $230,960 at the end of March, 1911. Since then, 
as the financial statements issued from time to time from the Treasury 
have disclosed, the surplus has been mounting. 
To what extent settlement of the Crown Agents’ accounts as at 3lst March 
last will make a dent in it remains to be seen. Also, the Executive Govern- 
ment, screwing courage to the sticking place, may charge to Expenditure 
account the sum appearing as assets against, and having reference to 
their dealings with, lots 70 and 71, Corentyne, Tranquility Hall, Plns. 
Windsor Forest, Hague and La Jalousie. It amounts to $61,778. It is 
stated in the Auditor General’s report for 1910-11 that the surplus 
shown at the end of that period “was due to some extent to the 
increased taxation imposed during the year but chiefly to the curtail- 
ment, wherever possible of expenditure, and to the change in the system 
of accounting authorised by Combined Court Resolution No. XII of the 
3rd November, 1910.” This means in plain language that inability, 
within a few months of the close of the year 1911, to foretell the behaviour 
of the revenue, caused some of the Government services to be neglected, 
and frightened the Executive into increasing the burden of taxation unneces- 
sarily. Tcey introduced an export tax on balata. The Government have 
since acknowledged their precipitancy. Unfortunately the act was not a 
spontaneous one. It was impelled by the obtrusive interference of a 
