HC Deb 07 August 1879 vol 249 cc396-7
SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the accounts promised with regard to Cyprus will include a statement of the actual receipts during the past twelve months, and the actual expenditure for the same period?

MR. BOURKE

Sir, the way the matter stands is this—The Estimates with regard to the revenue and expenditure of the Island for the year 1879–80 have already been presented to the House, and are now in the hands of hon. Members. The Estimates for 1878–9 will be in the hands of hon. Members this afternoon, and accompanied by a Memorandum of the late Financial Commission of Cyprus. The hon. and learned Member asks me whether we will present the actual expenditure and revenue for the last 12 months. My answer is, that the actual expenditure and revenue for the Island of Cyprus up to the end of the financial year 1878–9 has not yet been received by Her Majesty's Government. We have beard quite lately that these accounts are nearly finished in Cyprus, and Colonel Biddulph informs me that he hopes his financial officer will be able to send them home in a very short time, and we have also been told by Colonel Biddulph that there is every reason to believe that the actual revenue and expenditure of the Island up to the end of 1879 will bear out the Estimate which is in the hands of hon. Members now.

MR. CHILDERS

Sir, I should like to put a Question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, of which I have given him private Notice. In the Paper which has been circulated, we find the revenue of Cyprus estimated at £177,000, and the expenditure at £174,000; but there is also an item of £34,000 to be spent on buildings, repairs, and moles during the year 1879–80, and the interest on the money borrowed for those works is given as part of the expenditure at the rate of £1,200 a-year. I wish to know from whom that money will be borrowed, and, if from the Exchequer, whether he proposes to bring in a Bill to enable the Treasury to make such a loan? I wish to ask, also, whether any considerable part of that expenditure has already been incurred?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

Sir, I cannot answer the last Question now; but I can say that there is no intention whatever to make any advance from the Exchequer. The Government of Cyprus will make their own arrangements for borrowing whatever sum is required.