Excerpt from Speech on the Budget by the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks: Minister of Finance, Canada, Delivered in the House of Commons, Ottawa, 7th April, 1870

Hon. Mr. Holton. - The hon. Gentleman does not mean the actual surplus, but the surplus upon Sir John Rose's revised estimates} sir francis hincks. - I have no desire to keep anything back, but perhaps it would be better if the hon. Gentlemen Opposite would let me finish the whole statement, taking of course the amount of the Great Wes tern money, for Sir John Rose calculated on this as part of his ways and means - we find a gross surplus of viz.: on Customs, and miscellaneous, while the loss on Excise must be deducted, so that the net surplus on Mr. Rose's calculations was There appears to have been some omission of figures in his reported speech, for the exact surplus was We have now to consider the expendi ture of the same year. I have shewn that the revenue of my predecessor was in excess of his calculations, but I am sorry I cannot say that his expenditure was as low as he calculated upon. But it must be borne in mind, and it is only fair to put this strongly before the Committee that we are dealing now with what we may call his revised esti mated expenditure, and not with the estimates that were voted by Parliament the previous session - and in the revised estimates he had gone over all the departments and done his utmost to bring down the expenditure to the lowest possible point. I am afraid it is a very difficult thing indeed for a Finance Minister to accomplish so large a saving in expenditure as my predecessor thought he was able to do. The expenditure, according to the original estimates, was while the revised estimates stated it at making an estimated saving of The actual expenditure was but from that, however, I have to deduct what honorable gentlemen will say I am justified in doing - namely, the specific charge on the Intercolonial Railway Loan, and that being deducted, we have an actual expenditure of shewing an excess of on the revised estimate.

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