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deficit of $291,481 and a total one of $1,457,408; there were increased taxes amounting to $2,262,452; and increased interest charges of $123,082. In the first year of the new Government, ending June 30, 1898, the total deficit was reduced from $984,043 to $213,030; in the second year there was a surplus of $15,179; in the third year the surplus was $36,612. This he claimed, resulted from economy and involved no increased taxes.

For this last year, ending June 30, 1900, the ordinary receipts were $4,451,578 and the ordinary expenditure, $4,428,385. The estimates had been $4,204,899 in receipts and $4,155,755 in expenditures. There had, therefore, been a considerable increase in both receipts and expenses. The chief items of increase in the receipts over the preceding year were in Lands, Forests and Fisheries $256,126; Mines, $7,835; Law fees, $5,552; Direct Taxes on Commercial Corporations, $13,972; Lunatic Asylums, $32,473. The first item was mainly owing to the increased demand for timber, and especially for pulp-wood. The principal increases in expenditure were $9,535 for Legislation; $16,221 for Civil Government; $17,111 for the Administration of Justice; $63,743 for Public Instruction; $18,341 for Agriculture; $45,000 for Colonization; Lands, Forests and Fisheries $28,135. There had been revenue decreases from the Dominion of Canada of $41,145 in amount; from Licenses, $20,307; and from Succession Duties, $17,130. The reductions in expenditure were mainly in connection with the debt and amounted to $20,263.

The Treasurer intimated that there was a steady decrease going on in the amount received from the Succession tax and that it might be necessary to copy the English legislation under which transfers of property by donation within a certain period of the owner's death are regarded as transmissions by inheritance. Referring to the general position, he pointed out that the Provincial revenue was not an expanding one; that while population increased and commerce extended the Dominion subsidies remained the same; and that the interest on the Public Debt, amounting to $1,500,000, was always present. The estimated revenues for the year ending June 30, 1902, were $4,321,761 and expenditures $4,267,643. According to the official figures published at a later period in the year the actual receipts up to June 30, 1901, were as follows:

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Administration of Justice..

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$1,278,987
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The expenditures included $1,549,275 upon the Public Debt,

$235,596 upon Legislation, $278,307 upon Civil Government, $534,114 upon the Administration of Justice, $427,589 upon Public Instruction, $147,555 upon Public Works and Buildings, $199,217 upon Agriculture, $138,425 upon Lands, Forests and Fisheries, $189,390 upon Colonization and Mines, $345,000 upon Lunatic Asylums, $123,318 upon Railway subsidies and $528,208 upon miscellaneous matters and services. The total expenditures were $4,756,002.

In the course of his speech Mr. Duffy stated the Funded Debt of the Province on June 30, 1900, at $35,072,027, Temporary Loans at $700,000, Trust Deposits at $348,366, Outstanding Warrants at $132,666, Railway subsidies, authorized but not yet earned, at $725,667, the grant for the bridge over the St. Lawrence at $250,000, loss on Exchange Bank Deposit, $25,218 and Quebec Court House Bond, $176,000-a total of $37,429,946. Against this were certain assets amounting to $10,650,795 and of which the chief items were $7,600,000 due and unpaid on the sale of the Q. M. O. & O. Railway, or North Shore Line, to the Canadian Pacific Railway, and $2,394,000 of a Railway grant under Dominion Act 47, Victoria. The net debt on that date was therefore $26,779,151. On June 30, 1901, according to the subsequent official statement it was $26,072,419-a reduction of over $700,000. After a long reference to the arbitration of accounts between the Province and the Dominion, Mr. Duffy spoke of the change of deficits into surpluses, the checking of the debt increases, the prosperity of agricultural interests, the encouragement of colonization and the development of a pulp and paper industry. He concluded with the statement that "our people are united and happy."

The Hon. Mr. E. J. Flynn, Leader of the Opposition, briefly criticised the Budget. Any little surplus which existed was due to the sale of water powers and other infringements upon capital. The Conservative Administration in 1896 had been severely criticised because they had spent $3,978,424 and yet the present Government had voted for 1900-01 ordinary expenditures of $4,510,000 and a total amount of $4,899,435. Special warrants which the Liberal party and the members of the present Ministry had once denounced, were now being issued to an alarming extent $67,130 in 1898 and $175,664 in the current year from July 1, 1900, to February 1901. He quoted from a speech of the Hon. Mr. Gouin at Montreal on March 4th to prove that the situation was not satisfactory and that members of the Government were not working in harmony. He urged that the Dominion Government be asked for better terms and a larger subsidy. The Chapleau and Ross Ministries (Conservative) had tried the plan as had his own Government in 1896-97. The appropriations for the coming year he considered quite insufficient, and this was proved by the increase in the warrants while the revenues were being swelled by such extraordinary means as the sale of timber limits, water powers and the Seigneury of Mingan for $447,804.

The speech of the Hon. Lomer Gouin, Commissioner of Public Works, referred to by the Opposition Leader, was delivered at a

banquet given to the Minister by the East End Liberal Club, of Montreal. Amongst the other guests were Mayor Prefontaine, M.P., Senator Dandurand, Senator Mackay, Messrs. Duffy and Dechene, of the Provincial Government, and Messrs. O. Desmarais, M.P., and R. Lemieux, M.P. In the course of his speech Mr. Gouin spoke of the necessity of larger subsidies from Ottawa. "As things were going at present the Provinces were not receiving their just share from the Federal power." The needs of Quebec had greatly increased, and had the Fathers of Confederation foreseen the present requirements, they would have granted far more than the $1,500,000, which seemed sufficient in their day. The Chapleau, Ross, Mercier and Flynn Governments had all felt this necessity coming, and had pressed for increased grants. There were only three other ways out of the difficulty increased taxation, borrowing money, or sale of the public domain. The first two the people had decided against in 1897, and the last alternative it would be the present Government's duty to

oppose.

He respected the opinion of those who considered that legislative union of the Provinces would work out our destiny more quickly, but he did not agree with that opinion. The Provinces, as they were now constituted, helped the central power, and he believed they had a right to exist as at present constituted. He hoped they were not on the eve of a revolution, but if the rights of the Provinces were not recognized by the central power, there would be found some man to paraphrase Sieyes' celebrated saying and exclaim : "What are the Provinces in the Dominion?" and the answer would be "Everything."

In following the Minister, Senator Dandurand suggested that they might, in the meantime, tax the transactions of the stock markets in the cities of the Province. This proposal for a readjustment of the Federal subsidies and an amendment of the British North America Act created some discussion. The Quebec Chronicle pointed out that if a change was made from the basis of 90 cents per head of the population, as it was in 1861, to that of the Census of 1891, it would involve an increase for Quebec of $301,574, while Ontario would receive $574,584 more than at present. The Dominion was simply, in this connection, a tax-gatherer. The subsidies it pays have been already collected from us by Federal officers, and if we receive more, we shall certainly have to pay more." Other papers declared that the situation was due primarily to the carnival of extravagance which prevailed while Mr. Mercier was Premier from 1887 to 1891. The Conservative organs maintained, as against Mr. Duffy's figures of increased expenses and taxation during the last years following that regime, that they resulted from the necessary process of lifting the Province out the severe financial difficulties then incurred. No definite action was publicly taken upon the proposal for increased subsidies, and there was certainly no hint of it in the Budget speech.

Finances of
Nova Scotia

On March 5th, the Premier and Provincial Treasurer made his annual financial statement for the year ending September 30, 1900, in the House of Assembly, at Halifax. In commencing, Mr. Murray referred to the almost stationary condition of the revenue, which had prevailed for many years in the

Province, but was now, happily, a thing of the past. During the last three years there had been a substantial balance on the right side, and the Government had been able to deal liberally with the great services of the Province, such as education, charities, roads and bridges. Yet they had not been compelled to do as the other Provinces had done--resort to more or less direct taxation to make ends meet. Not a dollar was collected from the liquor traffic, nor was there any taxation of home or foreign corporations. In this respect the only change since Confederation had been the imposition of Succession duties.

Wise legislation, in dealing with the mineral development of the Province, was, he believed, the cause of this stability of position. The revenues in 1896 were $841,159; in 1897, $832,240; in 1898, $855,960; in 1899, $876,827; in 1900, $1,014,123 in place of the estimated income of $948,906. The largest item in this amount was the allowance from Ottawa, which totalled last year $432,806, and included the Federal subsidy and the interest on $1,056,128 still held by the Federal authorities to the credit of the Province. Next year, he thought, the royalties on mines and minerals would exceed this sum. During the year, under consideration, they had amounted to $413,874 as compared with the estimate of $390,000. In this connection the Treasurer gave a table of the tons of coal sold, and the royalty received thereon since 1874. The figures may be summarized as follows at five year periods:-

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The total production for the period was 39,787,264 tons, and the royalty collected thereon was $3,599,824. The average yearly production had increased from 906,268 tons in 1874-84 and 1,587,959 tons in 1885-91 to 2,078,065 tons in 1892-1900. The average royalty had grown from $66,698 in 1874-84 and $121,304 in 1885-91 to $224,112 in 1892-1900. Tracing the policy of his Government in this connection, Mr. Murray pointed out that the sales from 1892--when the royalty was raised to 10 cents per ton--to 1900 were 18,702,591 tons. Had the royalty remained at 74 cents, the amount raised would have been $1,402,694 instead of $1,870,259, or an average difference of $51,950 per year. Taking into consideration the portion of the coal, which paid 12 cents instead of 10 cents since 1893 the total loss to revenue under the old rate would have been $684,743 between 1892 and 1900. Without this money the ordinary grants to roads, bridges and education would have had to be reduced and, the Treasurer added, the subsidizing of railways probably abandoned. Yet the Conservative party had bitterly opposed the lease to the Whitney syndicate and the policy which had made this revenue development possible.

Another important source of revenue was that derived from Succession duties. The estimate for the year had been $25,000; the amount received was $29,688. The estimate from Hospitals had been $47,000; the returns were $48,574. The other items were small and the total, as already stated, was $1,014,123. The total expenditure was $937,261, leaving a stated surplus of $76,861. The chief items of expense were as follows: Agriculture $39,018; Debenture interest, $147,413; Education, $250,365; Public charities, $128,180; Road grants, $90,850; Legislature expenses, $50,775; Steamboats, packets and ferries, $40,864; Provincial Engineer's Office, $10,909; Mines Office, $23,975; Public Works Department, $24,436; Miscellaneous, $68,028. These amounts made a total of $874,813 and with other items make up the expenditure to a total of $937,261.

The expenditure on capital account for the year was $292,368 including $77,667 on Bridges, $6,864 on the construction of smaller Bridges, $205,000 for Railway subsidies and $2,831 on road-making machinery. The total liabilities of the Province on September 30, 1900, were $4,059,517 and, against this amount, the chief asset was $1,056,128 held in trust at Ottawa. "This asset, together with some of doubtful value would make the net debt of the Province at the end of the fiscal year, $2,713,301." Speaking in the House on March 13th, the Treasurer made a reference to the surplus which was important. "The Government at the end of the last fiscal year found themselves with a surplus on hand of $76,000. On the other hand they had expended $292,000 on capital account. There was only one course for the Government to take, and that was to take the $76,000 of surplus and apply it to decrease the general indebtedness of the Province." In this general connection, though not referred to by Mr. Murray, nor directly connected with Provincial finances, it may be mentioned that the Dominion supplementary estimates in April gave $443,400 to improvements upon the Intercolonial Railway-which is so intimately associated with Nova Scotia affairs. Later on, the Province received an award upon its claims regarding the Eastern Extension Railway from the Dominion Government, and the Premier stated that this sum of $671,000 would be placed to the credit of the Public Debt account.

On April 1st the Premier and Provincial Treasurer submitted the estimates of receipts and expenditures for the year ending September 30, 1901. He expected to receive $1,034,906 from all sources. The subsidy from the Federal Government would be $432,806 and the royalties from coal would probably be $460,000-an increase of $40,000 over the preceding year. From Crown Lands he expected $35,000; from the Hospital for Insane, $49,000; from Succession duties, $30,000. The principal expenditures which he proposed included $35,500 on Agriculture, $258,000 on Education, $15,000 on Crown Lands, $50,000 on Legislature expenses, $17,450 on Public Works, $25,000 on Mines, $132,100 on Charities, $15,000 on Printing, $50,247 on Steamboats, packets and ferries, $20,600 on Salaries, $216,405 on Road grants, $148,171 for the payment of Debenture

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