WELLINGTON NOTES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 26, Issue 1337, 10 August 1895, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Br Our Own Correspondent.) ■' ■ i : ' THE BANK OP NEW ZEALAND. .Two Bills are being drafted for its further relief. The following will be found pretty near the in ark when the Bilis are brought down. The first is to give effect to the amalgamation between the Bank of New Zealand and the Colonial Bank. The other Bill now '~4,u preparation is the natural consequence of the summary kicking out of the Estates Lottery Bill, and will give Government enabling powers to take over all the Assets Company's properties on 3 per cent, debentures—really another loan to the Bank of £775,000, if the variegated properties are taken at book values. If they are accepted by the colony at their real value and money's worth given for money paid, the transaction may not be a bad one so far as the country properties aTe concerned ; but the brick and mortar assets in the towns will require a deal of working down to make them profitable to the State. Members on both sides of the '' House are persistent in declaring that they will have no hurried legislation this year over the Bank of New Zealand affairs, and will insist, before any further assistance is given by,/ ; the colony, on having all things made abundantly clear to them. But it is as likely as not that the Bills will be kept back until late in the session when members are tired ont, and then will b j rushed throug without due thought. MORE ABOUT THE LOAN. Notwithstanding the embellishments with Which Mr Ward surrounded his London speech, to make it appear that the said speech meant exactly the opposite of what he did say, and that the same ideas were in his head after he left England, is fully corroborated by his using almost identical language in Canada merely substituting dollars for pounds. In an interview with a reporter in Toronto he said: —When the Australian colonies were suffering from financial collapse, New Zealand had 15 million dollars' worth of unpledged securities lying to our credit in London, which my Government had the forethought and prudence to provide against any emergency - that might arise. But we never had any occasion to use them and they are there still." i.How members who, by their votes, staked their future political existence on Mr Ward's sophistries can reconcile such an army of conclusive evidence as he bus brought against his own and his colleagues' quibbling is hard to understand. TSHORT OF CASH. ,V_ Notwithstanding their boasted, surplus it ' "is generally understood that by the time October comes round, and with it the half- ! yearly payment of the colony's interest bill, Government will find itself in worse straits than last year, and the first half year's payment of the new loan will have to be met : , on that' date in addition to the usual burden. Altogether the lenders had very good terms, for the terms of the loan were 30 per cent, of the sum lent to be paid on application (May 3rd), 35 per cent, in June, and the - of 35 per cent, in August, but the interest was to date for the whole amount from April Ist. This would add about 22s •to -the cost of the loan and bring its net price down to about £93 6s. It is more than probable that the land tax will have to be collected before its due date again this year, and as another means of raising cash it is . rumoured that Government intends raising the duties on tobacco, cigars and spirits. It is hoped that this will induce importers to clear large stocks out of bond, arid thus swell the Customs receipts; but

• merchants are not disposed to nibble, believing that the maximum tariff has been reached on everything taxable, and if Government must have more revenue the Treasurer will have to invent some new method of raising it. "With the reputation • he has among his party as a financier the want of a few paltry thousands ought to give no anxiety. OUR TRADE RETURNS For the quarter ending June 30th are published, and the exports have decre?sed, excluding specie from £1,989,237 in 1894 to £1,8i)9 813 for the corresponding period of this, year, wool, butter, grain, and flax, - showing the largest shrinkages, while gold . and; timber have increased considerably. The revival in the former has, it is to be hoped, come to stay, but the timber export is as yet in the speculative stage, and mayor may not prove of much benefit to the colony. Our timber is neither as plentiful nor so accessible as might be desired to open up a large export trade. The railway returns for th'i four weeks ending June 22n:l also show f a loss of rev.-nue of £3860 as compared with the same period of last year. , A declining 'trade and a shrinking revenue do not bear out i the predictions and assertions of the Governor's speech.

THE BUDGET. < - 5 Mr Ward opened his Budget speech with the following sentence : —" It gives; me pleasnre to be again able to congratulate the House and the country upon the satisfactory results of the year's finance " rßir Robert Stout characterises the Budget as ~ so " utterly misleading and crooked." Not-, ' withstanding all the assertions of Ministers that we had surpluses, were not borrow"irig, and were carrying on public works out ' of the revenue, the debt was increased last , year by £560,459 and there were £BIO,OOO . of treasury bi.ls outstanding on March 31st, ' inakihg our total debt £41,196.964 In 1891 when they took. ( offico it was £38,830.350. But it is in the statement of the annual interest account charges that the : TREASURER'S CBOOKEDNEBi •is shown. On page 5 the charge for this I! year for interest and sinking fund is stated as £1,716,889, and on page 9 at £1.656,970 • a ; discrepancy of £59,919, which does I not matter much seeing that both of them are a long way under the truth. What the actual sum is will take a- lot of finding out, but if , Mr Ward imagines that any member believes that our interest account has decreased since last year by such a sum as £216,712. he must hold very decided views as to their gullibility. Our debt is much larger, and ,yet he endeavours to befool the public with the idea that' the interest and sinking fund is less by over £ per cent, than last year. He claims to have made the position perfectly plain, yet this discrepancy is not explicable anywhere in the Budget. Probably the truth •will be dragged out of Ministers before the session is over, but there is little wonder now at their unwillingness to submit the returns before, or to allow anything to be referred to the Public Accounts Committee. One fact is acknowledged—our sinking funds which had grown to £1,456.427 at the time the present Government took office have now decreased to £751.932, and as • if to qualify this robbery of the colony's past savings the Treasurer had actually the indecency to express hopes he held of at some, future.date EXTINGUISHING OTJB DEBT by the operation of a sinking fund. What was actually do»e by his predecessor he now proposes as a new departure in finance and holds it out as a bait for fresh loans. As for works for the ensuing year there is no provisions whatever. Interest on loans and departmental expenditure absorb the whole of the revenue and the railway profits. Yet we find additions made to salaries, more officials appointed, and unnecessary extravagance going on where friends of Ministers or Ministers themselves are the beneficiaries.

tariff reform. Perhaps the mr>st dissatisfied peoole in the j colony on this subject are the six* commissioners who nobly travelled through the country at a cost of £I7OO to find out what the country wanted in the way of hitrhcr duties or further protection. Their report was a bulky volume of 500 pages. It provided for £IOI.OOO being takfcn oil certain articles and £IOO,OOO being added to certain others, the net result to tha consumer being the difference between a threepenny-bit and threepence worth of coppers. It was, of course, expected that their report would be acted upon, but the Cabinet, ignoring commission, brought down and passed in one Bitting an amended tariff, which apart from its absurdities, is as insulting to thcin as it is regardless of the interests of the workers. It is designed to take £45,000 off somearticles and inflict £55,000 on others, and the working classe-t will get by far the worst of the change. Tne penny reduction on tea in bulk and the same amount on kerosene cannotaffect the consumer, butthoadditional impost on fla-inelVtle universally worn by

women and children is a serious matter for the poor. Working men's shirts will now ;ost them about 9d each more, and instead of hundreds of women beinsr employed in the colony making them they will he' manufactured in sweating dens at Home. Boots of all descriptions will inevitably be dearer. One large manufacturer here who has manufactured all his stock for the past seven months, forwarded a £IO.OOO order home so soon as the tarifE was published. In reducing the duty on wax matches there appears to have been a breach of faith with the proprietor of the recently opened vestas manufactory here, who assured the commission that the treasurer had promised not to touch the duty on matches if the factory was opened. v ■■