POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

The Victorian Legislative Council has again thrown out the Women's Suffrage Bill, the motion for the second reading being lost by a majority of five. The Sydney Worker refers with satisfaction to " ihe> possibility that the capital may remain in Victoria for perhaps half a century." In discussing the tariff as an impediment to Trust-smashing, the Kansas City StaT speaks of the linEeed-oil monopoly, which ia assisted by the prohibitive duty ori flax-seed, and adds pertinently : " The Government carefully binds its hands behind its back with the tariff and then wonders why it makes euch^poor progress in smashing the Trusts." The Brisbane police having prohibited a Chinese procession in Queen-street on the ground that dt had information that the processionists would 'be olttacked with knives if that route were followed, the Worker ha 6 some strong comments. It says:— "Here is a pretty state of things! Some anonymous larrikin loafing in a boosing den, 6ome dirty Tasoal who ought to be suppressed under the Health Act 03 a public nuisance, has but to write a threatening letter to the police, and behold, the forces of law and order are paralysed, and a public procession relegated in a panic to a back street! This Worker scribe is not particularly concerned about the Chinese procession; but what guarantee have we that similar tactics will not.be pursued next Eight Hour Day? By the law of South Australia, the | father of a child born in or out of wedlock incurs full responsibility for its maintenance. Mrs. O'Connell, in her pamphlet on " The Better Protection of Children," says :—": — " In South Australia there is a State official whose business it ds to follow up these fathers. If a nian chooses to have an illegitimate child he errs against the State, not against the individual girl; he is found, made .to pay £10 to the confinement expenses, and lias .to make a weekly payment to tihe State for the child until it is eighteen." The age of consent -is fixed at seventeen, and the penalty for the seducer of a girl under lhat age is tmyeaTs' imprisonment. In Queensland tlie statutory age of consent is fourteen, but a provision that the seducer must know that the girl is below that age practically 'brings it, down to twelve. The Federal revenue (says the Australasian) ia falling, while the Federal expenditure is rapidly rising. The decrease of xevenue ior 1905-6 is estimated at £72,710, the increase of expenditure for the same period at £287,838. The returns to be handed over .to itho States will therefore be lessened by tiheee amounts. So far the Commonwealth has kept within the one-fourth of th© Customs and excise revenue whioh is assigned as its limit by the Braddon clause, and is able to pay more than thTee-fourths to the States. But, with the candle burning at both ends, the margin will be quickly consumed. The, Queensland Daily Mail publishes in detail the provisions of the Land Tax Bill, which the Administration has prepared for ; -this session. It provides for a tax of from Id to 3d in the pound with exemptions up to £6000. The publication of the Bill, the provisions of whioh had, as is usually .the case, been kept strictly secret, has been a disagreeable surprise to the Administration, and the Department would greatly like to discover how the leakage occurred. The Spanish Premier (Senor Montero Rios) made the following statement ito a correspondent of the Kcho de Paris : — " Spain has decided to attend the Morocco Conference, but on condition that the programme is submitted to lict in advance and that previous treaties are respected. We shall abandon none of our rights nor seek any other advantage.. The' rumour circulated ■by certain newsj papers that I was not in favour of the •Franco-Spanish Convention is not true. 1 beg you to deny those '.statements, which I never made. I am, on the contrary, a thorough partisan of the entente with Franco and Great Britain, and, what is more, I am determined to act in conc-STt with them at the conference." A« correspondent signing himself "Bung" makes some original suggestions ' in a letter to tho Sydney Morning Herald. He writes :— "The average publican is an ill-used mortal, ground' as he is between tho upper millstone of a brewer's rapacity, and the nether millstono of a grasping propertyowner. Hundreds of persons with capital have been inveigled into hotel-keeping through misrepresentation, and have been ruined. The conditions imposed by the brewers on the licensees of tied houses are grossfy onesided, and the publican may be likened unto a mouse in the clutch of a cat. The cupidity of the brewer is really responsible for the systematic breaking of the law. A clause should be inserted in the Liquor Bill making it obligatory on tho part of the brewers to compensate publicans dispossessed by local option vote. Sir John Forrest's attack on the supposed detractors of Australia (writes the Australasian) is so much talk to the gallery. No one wishes to disparage Australia, but her best friends are the severest critics of the legislation by) which she is being injured. In the beginning of ltis Budget speech the Treasurer dwelt upon the fact that during | the last thirteen years the departures from these shores exceeded the arrivals by 15,116. Why did he mention this, if he is so anxious that nothing should be said to lessen the attractiveness of Australia? The only reason for retailing such facts is to show tho way to an improvement. In Australia herself, with her nnexhausted productiveness, there is nothing to justify so great a loss. Bad legislation, destroying confidence and dwarfing enterprise, has much to do with it. And it is rnero stuff and nonsense to answer complaints ngainst the Legislature by boasting of the productiveness of the last /two seasons and the promise of the present, ,A Melbourne correspondent telegraphs under date 28th August, to the Sydney Daily Telegraph :— Another attempt on tho part of the Commonwealth Government to cut into tho finances of the State was considered by the State Cabinet this evening, when the following letter from the Prime Minister was submitted by the Premier to this colleagues : — "I have the j honour, at the instance of my colleague, the Postmaster-General, to inform you that it is proposed to make a charge against your Government of five-eighths of 1 per cent, on tho total amount of tho old-age pensions paid by posjmasters in country districts of Victoria, in order to cover the expense of providing additional assistance and accommodation in connection with this work. I shall, therefore, be glad if you will bo so good as to approve of payment to Postal Department for the performance of this service, being at the same rate which it has been determined to charge the Government of Now South Wales on the total amonnt of old-age pensions paid by postmasters." Mr, Bpnt, after the Cabinet meeting, said:— "We have deferred our decision upon this request. I am going into the whole question of how much we pay them, and how much they pay us for services rendered, and Arijl then strike the balance. We are doing a good deal of work for them, and charge nothing. They do a little for us and see what they ask. When they send' in a clnirn like this, it is time for ub to look up our side of the accounts." Mr. Bent's "contra account" will no doubt bo an interesting document, showing tnat tho Commonwealth is on the wrong side of the ledger.