HC Deb 27 May 1881 vol 261 cc1453-4
SIR WALTER B. BARTTELOT

asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether remonstrances have been lately received at the Colonial Office from Western Australia, as to the way in which expenditure has been incurred in that Colony, without previous legislative sanction; and, whether the subject is under the consideration of the Secretary of State?

MR. GRANT DUFF

Sir, it might be enough to say that the hon. and gallant Baronet's information is quite correct; but as he has asked me, for good reasons, to give a somewhat full answer to his Question, I must state a few particulars. The Legislative Council of Western Australia, in September of last year, presented an Address to the Governor in connection with a Bill to regulate the receipt, custody, and issue of the public moneys, and to provide for the audit of the public accounts, in which Address the Council represented that the control of the Legislature over the public purse has been merely nominal, and not real, as the present constitution of the Colony contemplates. They further stated that during the past 10 years some £160,000 has, in fact, been expended over and above the sums submitted to vote in the annual Estimates. The Governor pointed out, in reply, that this irregularity has been, to a great extent, due to the practice of framing the Estimates on an insufficient scale, leaving it to the Governor to issue on his own authority Supplementary Warrants, which had to be legalized by subsequent legislation; and he quoted the Report of a Select Committee on over-expenditure for 1878, which stated "that due regard to economy was, as a whole, observed by this Government." The Secretary of State is now considering this matter, and proposes to issue such instructions as may remove, as far as practicable, the irregularity of spending money without the previously obtained authority of the Legislature. Her Majesty's Government are confident that they will have the full co-operation of the Governor in securing the legitimate control of the Legislature over the Public Expenditure.