WELLINGTON NOTES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 191, 14 August 1895, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(From our own Correspondent). | f TOPICS OF THE HOUR, , The verdict of " Not Guilty " in the Mast-ton murder, case took everybody by surprise, for the murder was.so deliberate a one that there seemed to be hardly a vestige of a defence to bB put forward to save Somerville's neck, However, a defence fund was opened by, it is generally, understood the Orangemen, and witnesses brought from various quarters, to prove that the accused was born of parents who transmitted certain vices to him, and that as a boy he was morose and violent. Four doctors testified 'that Somerville had a congenital . leaping towards lunacy which drink converted into insanity. This medical evidence was brought out arid commented on with so much skill and address by counsel that the jury brought in a verdict of " Not . Guilty " on the ground of insanity. The verdict, following so soon after that of " manslaughter ' in the Nicholson case, where a poor woman was battered for some days by an unfeeling brute till she died from her repeated beatings, has impressed people considerably. Yet, on reading the evidence thiough carefully one can hardly blame the jury. __ey had to find a verdict on the evidence, and the evidence of the experts was that the man was a lunatic, and although the general . outside opinion is entirely against this view, the twelve men who had to. decide on the murderer's fate may excuse themselves and say that the verdict is really the verdict of the professional men whose opinions they had to believe. THE BUDGET AND TARIFF . monopolises the political talk, and the Budget bringß to. mind a very clever book written some 40. years ago by Professor' de Morgan, who was mathematical. Prof essor^of the London University College. He let daylight- into many absurdities in his day, ridiouled the efforts of calculators to arrive at any definiteness regarding the quadrature of the oirole, and satirically demonstrated that 2 and 2 need not by any in- < genuity or sophistry be more or less than 5. The boekwas called A BUDGET OF PARADOXES, and it should be on the office table of every member of the :*.eddon Government. Had Mr Ward digested it in his spare hours on the . voyage from Vancouver to Auckland the Financial Statement, of 1895 would not have been the bundle of paradoxes it has now proved to be. Members on both sides of the House, .pressmen, commercial men, and schoolmasters -have all attempted in vain to make the figures and facts fit, but in vain ; and that mathematical acenrracy which is indispensible "in the exact sciences and balance -Bheets are not to be found. he ground work of the whole puzzle— tbe financial returns —is not yet -forthcoming. Government supporters, who have spoken on the Budget have discreetly lef fcany reference J to the maze of accounts alone ; they have followed, the American showman's instructions, "Don't touch .the Jiggers." Ihe Opposition have manfully- waded through the labyrinth in which Mr Ward and the Treasury officials have hidden the- problem whioh the people of £• ew Zealand are desirous of solving; '—Is the colony progressing or retrograding ? We have, so far, had FOUR SOLICITOUS, four men accustomed to deal with figures, both commercially and polit icklly — with finance in the abstract and the concrete, Mr Mitchelson, sir K. tout, Mr Dnthie, and Captain Russell. , These four have not, like Mr Ward, ,. Hastily compiled their calculations, with a view of surrounding .a vicious and broken down policy with a halo of hopes to a population which has realised that/ " hope deferred maketh the heart sick." They have tabulated the figures and excavated the faots and compiled them into a form which ordinary minds can grasp and understand, although absolute accuracy in some minor matters is not possible for want of the "ammunition" Mr Seddon prides himself on keeping back from Parliament. The only answers Ministers make aro miserable washed out, bluster from the Premier on the sins of past administrations ; absurd denials from the Minister: of Lands that his. Government ever claimed to be a non- borrowing Government, and an excuse from Mr Carrol that' the most .palpable mistakes in the Budget are clerical arrors". Mr Ward has still his, reply to make of the fonr members who so severely criticised the figures dealing with the national debt, and the usual charges for interest Mr Dnthie, with only the regulation hour to speak, could not condense his criticism of Mr Ward's elaborate, production, anjl he has, printed a set of tables showing concisely and clearly our true position. As these tables trace out step by stepthe progress and growth of our' national debt, and arrive finally at -the same total sums as the Budget does by a moro rondabout course, and no Minister or supporter . of the Government has yet offered to challenge them. Mr Duthie's paper is a very acceptable one. It is valuable in other ways, for it lays down certain propositions which ar9 'worked out and • demonstrated as infallibly as axioms in Euclid, and his paper would be a good text book for amateur financiers. He lays down the following self-evident interpretations : — 7 A TRUE SURPLUS is the gum in excess of ordinary revenue over ordinary expenditure; debentures and released sinking funds (called receipts in aid) are really borrowed money ; ordinary revenue doee not entail payment of interest ; ami receipts in aid do. Thiß being bo it must, be conceded that borrowed money cannot properly be called "revenue' when it is used to construct a surplus, because debentures are borrowed money, and released sinking funds mean increase of debt, 'lhese axioms being kept in view and tbe Budget examined from its proper standpoint, all the surpluses claimed by.Government since they took office disappear entirely, and the Bum spent on Public works during tbeir term of I omoe-£2,416,187 has been entirely obtained from 1 borrowed money, and the boasjed surplus of £180,024, is the balodoe;le(t' and sinking funds and not a surplus at all, but the miserable remains left after the exhaustion of every available asset the oolony was possessed ot, and our interest acoount has increased from :_1,670,262 in 1891 to £1,599,089 in A ,1896.: Mr Duthie's exposition, of .. coloured finance (on a single sheet is _ more vajuable.publio dooument than ; : : Jbe WiffijiMAtiim of 67 page's.

THE TARIFF. has not a Bingle friend. Government newspaper writers and Government supporters who a month ago could not find words laudatory enough for the Government are now equally at a loss for excuses in some oases and condemnation in others, but the Treasurer w.th his usual affability is prepared to abandon all his proposals so long aB he iB not deprived of further revenue from the Customs. The reciprocity treaties may go to the wall, and he will take baok every item on hiß proposals, but the House must settle the details for itself. It is a heroic attitude to take up, but a hard up Treasurer cannot afford to be an Ajax defying the lightening. His tariff proposals among other things of reduoing the exemption of death duties on estates yielding £600 a year to £800, where widows br widowers are the persons the property devolves on. Ibis is now said to be another clerical error and what is meant is that that the least sum on whioh duties shall be paid iB £300 a year. The wording of the Budget plainly point to - tbe intention to mulct a widow who has only £300 left her altogether. However linblic opinion as expressed throughout; the colony by publio meeting?, letteiß to newspapers, telegrams to members, and deputations will lead to a revision of tho Trea«uier'a proposal?, aud after the Tariff Commissioner's report, and the oontradiotory interest involved iv any alteration it is very difficult to foresee what will happen. LOCAL GOYEBNME HI" The members of publio bodies who are now here to attend the Conference are very muoh inoeußed at having nothing to discuss, ihey are getting tbeir ey-a opened to what sort of Government is ruling the colony,' and they say very truly that a bill of euoh importance should have been prepared during iho receßß, and circulated among them bo tbat people could have discussed it at leisure, but for them to be brought to attend a general Conference and fiud tbey have nothing to disouss is an insult to them" aB well as a personal loss,