POLITICAL GOSSIP.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7868, 20 May 1891, Page 6

POLITICAL GOSSIP.

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TEL-GRAM.) WELLINGTON, May 19. Ministers were in Cabinet for several hours to-day considering their financial proposals, but the result of their deliberations has not been made known. The policy. Bills of the Government are in a forward state of preparation and will be circulated almost immediately upon Parliament meeting. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Bill, to be introduced next session by the Minister for Justice, is not out of the printer's hands, but it is expected to be ready for circulation about the end of the week. So great has been the demand for copies of the measure that a fresh issue has been ordered from the Government Printer.

(FROM OTXR CORRESPONDENT.) WELLINGTON, May 19. I hear, upon what I have reason to consider good authority, that tile census returns are turning out very badly. I mean that they are exceedingly disappointing as regards the increase of population, which proVes to be far smaller than was generally ' anticipated. There is,. it is true, a large I increase in Wellington, and fair progress has been made in some other towns, but many places show a serious loss, and it is evident that the exodus from the colony must have been a great deal larger than the Customs returns at the various ports show. An estimate, believed to be approximately trustworthy, puts the present European Eopulation of New Zealand at about 20,000, instead of 660,000, which many food judges expected to be proved as the gure. A strong impression prevails in what are usually called " political circles " that the case of Whitaker v Hutchison will "die out"' somehow, if this can possibly be managed without material derogation of either side's dignity. The decision of the Court of Appeal that all the private affairs of Sir Harry Atkinson and of Mr Mitchelson must be dragged into Court and before the public has been a formidable blow to the plaintiff's case, because naturally those gentlemen do not particularly relish submitting all their private concerns to the inspection and dissection of a bitter opponent whom they have been instrumental in forcing into a costly and harassing action at law. Moreover Sir Frederick Whitaker and Sir H. Atkinson both are virtually out of politics now, politically dead in fact, and have little if anything to gain by pressing the case. It is not as if they were still in active political life. On the other hand, the proceedings are very expensive and harassing to Mr Hutchison, and probably he, too, would not be sorry to see his way out of it without a fight to the bitter end. For these and other reasons many people believe that the case will never get as far as a verdict. Referring to the proposed appointment of a Minister of Industry, the " Post" to-night says:—"lf the Minister of Lands would look after the administration of his department in a business-like manner and devote himself to promoting and assisting the work of bona fide settlement, he could do more to relieve the labor market and establish general prosperity than the invention of a score of Ministerial titles or the creation of as many new departments would do. It is pure mockery to talk about creating a portfolio and Department of Industry as a boon to the industrial classes when we find the Minister of Lands on the one hand obstructing settlement in order to gratify his pet theory, and the Minister of Public Works ou the other hand keeping men out of work by obstructing the Midland Railway Company, now as a Minister, because formerly as member for Knmara he disapproved of its proceeding. Both these Ministers will have serious indictments to answer when Parliament meets, and their accusers will come from all parts of the colony. They will find it exceedingly difficult to justify their actions, and unless they speedily change their tactics and reform their manners they will bring retributive ruin on their own heads, and on those of their colleagues as well. The Legislature, we are sure, will not endorse Mr McKenzie's fanatical objection to granting freehold tenures or endorse Mr Seddon's bitter local animosity towards the Midland railway scheme. Both these Ministers are playing a dangerous game, and if they are not sharply pulled up, they will wreck the Ministry." Lengthened meetings of the Cabinet were held yesterday, when I learn that the business consisted mainly in considering details of the intended financial proposals of the Government.

Ministers do not intend to decide on any course of action with regard to the Public Trust Office until the final report is received from the Royal Commission. The Commission still has nine days to run, and it is understood that the report will be presented at the expiration of that period. According to present plan, no evidence will be taken after the end of the current week.