POLITICAL NOTES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 82, 20 December 1887, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

r COBRESPONijENt.j Wellington, yesterday. Members are working very hard, and WIP have good reason to be glad when it is all over. The House sat on Saturday—a very unusual thing, The Estimates were gone through, and the immigration vote was struck out, Mr McKen. zia and other Government supporters favored the striking out of the suffii There is a deadlock between the House »h 4 Council over the Land Bill clauseit.

UOVBHNMXNIBOBROWING PBOPOBALS—I WVMION, Speaking on the Public Works proposals, Sir Julius Vogel congratulated the Minister for Public Works on his Statement, which he said was a very able one and ingeniously fitted together. He regarded the proposal not to deal definitely with the North Island Trunk railway as the result of fear of offending either their Auckland or Wellington sup. porters. He was convinced, from enquiries be had made, that for £60,000 communioaiioti could be made between a point on the main line at Te Awamutu to the coast of New Ply. mouth, and this was all that was necessary to be done. The line, he considered, should not be carried further north than Huntersville. As regarded the Otago Central line, the proposals were unsatisfactory. The Government bad virtually taken this line up a* a Ministerial work as far as and the line should be completed tu that point within the nett two years. The proposed rate of expenditure on roads and bridges was the merest guess-work, as it would depend on the .way settlement progressed. The vote of £30,000 for employmeht was totally inadequate. He regretted thgt the railway from Christchurch to SumnOr, which Would only cost £14.000, and which had been accidentally omitted from the work* schedule of 1886, had not been provided fur. He deprecated further expenditure on harbor defence works, and did not think a million loan was required, though half a million might be necessary. The Minister for Education sarcastically referred to Vogel's ptetending to have * scheme for the relief of the colony; and with not acting Honestly in declining to disclose it while still drawing pay. The moneys could not be diverted from the objeote for which they were set apart. Dr Fitchett moved, " That the amount of the loan should not exceed half a million." Dr Hodgkinson seiiomlrtL The Premier said it was<agel'* bad financing that had brought tbe felony into the present difficulty. The latte JLtleman knew nothing about the necestefj lor roads and public works, only wanting the Government to borrow enough for one year, under the supposition that he would then come dovin with his big scheme. By having to discharge several hundred men the general feeling of the depression would undoubtedly be more severe, but he had previously asked the House to consider what the effect would be. The Government were prepared to go into Committee,' and to assist in every reasonable reduction that was thought possible. Sir George Grey objected to the wild scheme of borrowing proposed, and desired that in it* place a policy of prudence might be adopted. Mr 8. McKenzie said it was a moat vicious idea to go on borrowing for borrowing's sake. The railway construction had outrun tbe population and trade of the colony, and tha obvious cure was to stop such construction. During the late election the country was ripa for a radical change, but no such change was indicated in the Public Works Statement. In Major Atkinson's Financial Statement of 1882 they would find the same arguments in favor of borrowing, and the same cautions about moderation, tapering off, and tying up, but they had hever tapered off and tied upL quite the contrary. Whilst the leader of the Opposition and the Premier wrangled over 'the balances and the expenditure, it never occurred to either of them to stop the borrowing itself. Each Opposition leader commenced to borrow when he became Premier. Th* Government should have had the nerve to reduce the Loan Bill tbemselveei The pro; poaals entailed four million pounds. Ther* were the two millions, then the Northern Trunk Line was under estimated By one million, the floating debt would be ffiostl? funded, and all the other lines would be under-estimated; and to crown all, even when that money was expended, the Uns* would be unfinished. Thu Northern Trunk line ought to be stopped, and the north of Auckland lino and some others, and th* money should be spent on such as wire necessary in the interests of the colony; and so wind up the policy for tbe time. He Could not vote for Dr Fitchett’s amendment: it came from a bad quarter ; but he begged thb House to cut down the policy in Committee, After a lot of talk a division was taken on Dr Fitchett’s amendment, which was rejected by 84 to 8.