POLITICAL NOTES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14474, 1 October 1912, Page 7

POLITICAL NOTES.

(BPECIAL TO "THE PBES9.") WELLINGTON, September 30. PUBLIC SERVICE SUPERANNUATION. Following upon the recommendation from the Actuary, the Government proposes this session to obtain authority to increase the annual subsidy for the Public Service Superannuation Fund to £45,000 for tho three years 1911, 1912, 1913. This means an increase of £25.000 on the present contribution by the State. The amount of assistance required for tho fund was originally under-estimated, and the Actuary's report states that the subsidy must be increased for some years, tho future limit being between £SO,OOO and £90,000. PENSIONS BENEFITS. Tho pensions proposals which the Government intends to enact this session comprise, in addition to military pensions, an extension of tho Widows Pension Act of last year. An amending Bill will ho introduced extending the benefits conferred by the Widows Pension Act of last year to any woman whose husband is an inmate of a mental hospital within tho meaning of tho Mental Defectives Act, 1911. Payment on account of children born out of New Zealand, but whose parents were at the timo of their birth domiciled in New Zealand, will also be provided for. STATE COAL MINES. Provision will bo made in this year's Coal Mines Act Amendment Bill to raise a loan of £100,000, partly For the purpose of paying the balance of the cost of the development works at the new mine, and partly for repayment to the account the amount which appears in tho balance-sheet as sinking and reserve funds and profit, but which has actually been expended in development works at the mine. "THE RUINS OF THE OLD.SPOILS PARTY." Tho "Dominion" hotly attacks the past Administration in connection with Saturday morning's exposure of tho State Advances Department. # "It is tho most crushing indictment possible of the party with which Mr Russell ie associated," Bays' the paper. "Tho member for Avon will have as much reason to regret as the public will have to feel glnd, thnt his mistaken notion of tactics has brought about his cars and the ears of his associates tho ruins of the old Spoils Party." THE WEEK'S .PROGRAMME. A strenuous time is expected in Parliament this week. The first important business on the Order Paper istno resolutions regarding tho Legislative Council, but they will probably not be discussed before next week. Bills will be the order of. the day for some time now.

RAILWAY SERVANTS,

The representatives of the first division of tbo Railway Service hnd two interviews with tho Hon. W. H. Hcrries to-day regarding increases in pay, but so far no definite decision has been arrived at. The demands of the second division have not yet been before the Minister.