QUEENSLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 12

QUEENSLAND.

A fire occurred in Wickham-street, I Brisbane, on Saturday morning; 14th inst., resulting in the destruction of eight shops, four of which were gutted, others being damaged beyond repair. The adjacent building, occupied by Robert .Jennings, fruiterer, was saved with the greatest difficulty. Otthe eight premises destroyed six were occupied as shops 1 and dwellings. The fire was caused through a pot of fat blazing up and setting nro to the curtains on tho mantelpiece in tho shop occupied by Madame Esmondo, The damage is estimated at several thousand pounds. The Treasurer (Mr. Kidstnn) delivered his. financial statement in the Anbcmbly on the 17th inr.t. He congratulated tho countiy on its continued prosperity, and said that to-day Queensland was perhaps in a sounder financial position than ever bcfoip, and on every hand there v.ns piomise of further expansion and still gi eater prosperity. Tho , atlimat&d xavbjui^ &v; JaU jneat >,v .

£3,841,200, and the amount actually received >\as £4,307,912, the estimate thus being exceedod by £466,712. Tho estimated expenditure for the year was £3,837,897, tho actual expenditure £3,911,797, the estimate thus being exceeded by £73,900. The loan fund expenditure during the year was £683,570. Of this £554,783 was spent on railways, £202,809 on buildings, £36,761 on wire netting, and £69,000 advanced to local bodies. The loan fund balances at bank on 30th Juno were : — At call or short notico, £518,450 ; and extended deposit £1,285,572; making a total of £1,804,022. According to Mr. Kidston's Financial Statement, it is intended to exempt from tax the first £200 of all incomes, to reduce the tax on income from property from Is to 9d in the £, and to make it optional for owners of stock to defer paying tax on increase of stock until it has been sold. These alterations will involve a loss of revenue of about £100,000. Tho Treasurer protests against Sir William Lyne's suggested penny postage, and points out that while post offices show a profit in several States, Queensland had in seven years lost £663,921 through the post office. The Treasurer sets down £60,000 for old-age pensions, and a Bill is being prepared for a pension of 10s a week to all persons requiring it who are over 65 years of age, and have resided the requisite time in Queensland, or whose claims have been accepted in accordance with the reciprocal arrangements with the other States. Provision for six months only was being made this year, as it would be January before arrangements could be completed to begin payments under this scheme. This £60,000 and the extra £251,000 required by the adoption of the eighthour day principle in the Railway Department were the chief permanent charges. Ho believed the majority of the House would approve of them. The Treasurer expects a surplus next year of £7104. A young man was at a late hour on Friday night, 13th inst., discovered by James Haslet, a night watchman, staading on the window-sill of the Queensland National Bank. On being told to come into the light, the man caught hold of the night watchman, who, though 63 years of age, struggled desperately. Haslet, finding himself being overpowered, called on the -intruder to release his grasp, or he would shoot. As the maiv refused, tho watchman fired his revolver, the . bullet entering the man's head. He was taken to the hospital in a serious condition, and died on Saturday afternoon. The body of the victim was afterwards identified by his two sisters as that of a youth named Oswald Braun, 18 years of age, late of Maryborough, Queensland. The police believe that he was probably waiting for a confederate to join him at the bank. lie carried no firearms nor burglar's tools, but was wearing a pair of sand shoes. The police on the i4th inst. searched Braun's rooms at his lodgings, and found there the proceeds of two burglaries which took place in Brisbane the previous week. Braun, who was the son of respectable people, had been in Brisbane only about two or three weeks. The police stated that there was no record against him. He was educated at the Maryborough Grammar School. • He is described as a well-developed, athletic young fellow.