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%ht Witta -Ä.usindiäii.
riGXLAXS ST AVDAX.
PERTH, SATURDAY, AUG. 20. 1S3C
Thiîes is probably no portion of tho
Estiaiateo of expenditure for each. ye*r
moro closely ecrutiuistd by the geunral
public then tho ¡terns included under the
heading cf buildings. With tho greater
works, vtitli thooa of national importance,
evuryono is moro or lees familiar. All
the particulars lia ve been frequently
discussed, the approximate cost is known, j '
and tho amount is not drawn froiu eui- |
rent revenue, but figured iu tho schedule j 1
to a Loan Bill. It is, hu wovor, ou& of | j
the happiest features of the present ' '
positiou of tho colouy, that out of tho i
abundant revouuo at tho dihpoaal of the I ,
! Goverurncnt a large portiou is availhble
for parnianout "works, which if not in tho
strict sense of the Corin interest-paying are
nono the less necessary for aiding mitha
devolopmeut of our territory. The total
estimated expenditure for tho current
financial year, as mentioned by tho
Tskasueee ia his Budget Sptoch on
Thursday evening, is £2,720,426, and
out of this large sum ¿450,915 is to be
devoted to buildings alono, while roads
and ¿ridge», harbours «ud rivers, en
giooeriavf surveys, aud water supply
absorb ££4.0,800. Thu attention ¿irccied
to that part of tho ostuaatos dealing with
buildings is easily explainable. It is safe
to say that thor© is scarcoly a town,
and certainly not a district, which
is not represented in the list.
Under tho stimulus of an ovor flowing
Treasury snd genoral prosperity, wanto
which wera net thought of in the old
days, for the sufficient roason that there
.was no possibility of supplying them,
toojing into existanco, and the demand
for ^«Spitals, subco!», courthouse«, police
statÍ9ü6*, agricultural lialls, aud other,
edificas of* a public character appears
to be almost Juuitleäs. If the Govern-
ment, in. response to the appeals made to
them on every side, were to utilise loan
funds for the purposes named, the posi-
tion nrghs well be regarded as furnish-
ing serióos cause for alarm. The colony
?jrould be incurring a large debt, repre-
senting an expenditure on bricks and
morSar, and ftiânjahing directly not ono
penny" «£ interest ia order to assist in
meeting^he capital cost of construction.
If ever fsxeuse can be found for some
amount of pxptijiseness in the" expenditure
of public funds, it is under such circum-
stances as exist af present ia regard to
providing public buildings througheot
the colony. These axe being erected not
merely in obedience to the people's wish,
but with the people's money. The issue,
as the Teeasueee pointed put on
Thursday night, is a very simple* pne.
The taxpayer has two alternatives
from which to choose. On the one
hand, if he deslíe* buildings, roads,
bridges, jptfâes, and tho many other
adjuncts to a weli-oquippad community,
he must be paaparod to pay for them by
voluntary taxafom. On the other hand,
>jf he thinks that he can employ his
mtoney to better advantage by keeping
move, of it at his eiisn disposal, and by
paying less to ths CntíWnis in order te
provide* the Government with revenue,
ho is, in .his collective capacftj", at liberty
to do so. There are two pericias, and
the choice must be made between" thom.
It is impossible to follow both. To
quote a homely adage, the country cannot
'both have its cake and eat it. Tho view
which the Government have taken-and
the*« is no -reason to doubt that it has
received the populas verdiot-is that
times of prosperity like the present,
furnish the occasion above all others
when the colony is best able to equip
itself for those new possibilities which
are yearly being transformed into
realities.
Another reason why the country is
willing to pay the cost of providing those
conveniemcoa wt'ich the new conditions
demand, is that the Government is
careful in its eadeaftouas to deal fairly
with every past. Locating through the
list of works on the Batimates, it is diffi-
cult to discover a single district which is
not down for some palito building or
other. Hospitals and qna*antine station«
taloae absorb some .£06,000, ana among
ti;.« plaeea. which are to receive the first
BS\med are Albany, Beverley, Bridge
tovfca, Busselton, Gamarrón, Coolgardie,
One,- Derby, Fremantle, Geraldton, Jar-
rahdale, Kalgoorlie, Marble Bar, Menzies,
Nessertian, Northam, Onslow, Perth,
Southam Cross, Yalgoo, York, and
Wyndham. 1% less comprehensivo is
the list of police stations and quarters,
on which>the sum of £85,500 is to be
expended. Under this heading the
placee which will benefit are Bardoc,
Beaconsfield, Bro fid Arrow, Broome,
Bulong, Bunbay, Canning, Carnarvon,
Claremos^, Coolgardie, Cossack, Cne,
»Day Dawn, Dundas, Espertnae, Eacla,
.Fremantle, 'Gascoyne Jnnetion, Hall's
Creek, Hamelin, Helena Yale, Highgate
Hill, Kalgoorlie, Kanowna, Kelmscott,
Kurnalpi, Lawler's, Leederville, Marble
Bar, Menzies, Mfcgonew, Moora, Mount
Hamersley, Mount Jackson, Mount
Magnet, Nannine, .Niagara, Newcastle,
Norseman, North Px-emantle, Northam,
Fertb, Plympton, Koabonrae, South
Perth, Southern Cross, Subiaco, "Wynd-
ham, and Yalgoo. It would ta weari-
some to go through t&e catalouge of
other public buildings, such as
post and tolegraph offices and sehools,
for whieh provision has been made, hut
in all cases it will be found that they are
no less representative than the list jost
given. One ¿anger inseparable from
this activity on the part of the State is
that it may saddle the colony with a
Civil Service vastly out of proportion ia
nnmbers to the rest of the population.
It is obvions that all the works
enumerated in the estimates, to say
nothing ef those to be constructed out of
loan funds, cannot be taken in hand and
completed without further numerous
additions to our already large Civil
Service. But it is no less certain that
the time will come, as it has done in the
other colonias, when retrenchment will
have to be mado on an equaily extensive
scale. This is one of the practical
difficulties which surround the typs of
State socialism that we are fashioning in
Australia. We are calling into existence
a class of people removed from tho active
competition of life, provided with an
easy means of livelihood, aud dependent
on the State for their maintenance. The
problem does not yet touch as Tftty
closely, but it is growing with' the
prosperity oí the colony, and it will not
have diminished if some of that pros-
perity bhouid leave us. It is bat, per»
! Sups, tim must reassuring- sign of ti»
I times feat the State should be the pro
J vldíuce to which no Urye a proportion of
1 our population looks for tho means o£
! livelihood, and yet, dospite the dangar, it.
is difficult, if not impodfible, to point to
any oilier course, by tho adoption of,
which that danger might be avoided
without wurso robulis to tho colony fol-
lowing.
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