NEW SOUTH WALES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7773, 20 October 1886, Page 6

NEW SOUTH WALES.

i'fEOM OUB OWN OOSSESFONDSHT.I Sydney, October 8. Thb New South Wales Parliament will be prorogued in a few days, and in some respects it is more than time. The present House was at no time composed of very high-class men, but a ridiculously long session has made bad worse to a degree you can scarcely conceive. The scenes of disorder are something unheard of elsewhere. Language is nightly made use of very little above the level of a pothouse brawl, and in the meantime the affairs of the colony, which demand every care and attention, receive neither one nor the other. Wβ have just had a twenty-six hours' sitting, out of which all parties have come in a very shady condition. One honourable member, whose name, by way of pointing the joke, ia "Wisdom," and who was looked up for eight hours under the Speaker's warrant for becoming too outrageous, was only captured by the Sergeant-at-Arms after a personal struggle, in which both parties rolled on the floor. The united efforts of half a dozen messengers were required before Mr. Wisdom could be put under look and key, and it is said that he very nearly sucoeeded twice subsequently in making his escape. Two people are mainly responsible for this disgraceful state of things, and those are the Premier and the leader of the Opposition. Sir Patrick Jennings has neither the ability nor the temper necessary to make use of his majority ; and Sir Henry Parkee, while he has the ability has not the personal influence over members that would enable them quietly to take advantage of Ministerial blunders. Thus, each party is constantly in a false position, and such an idea as that of party discipline is utterly unknown in the House. Public opinion is, of course, scandalised at all this, but not nearly so much so as it would be in New Zealand. There is somehow a spice of larrikinism abroad in society here which causes even the worst cases of rowdyism in politics to be looked on rather is' jokes 'than as anything more serious. It iq proposed, before the House is prorogued, however, to pass an Act placing the railways under a Board of Management. All parties seem willing to try the experiment, as an escape from the present intolerable state of muddle into which railway affairs have got. You have considerable experience of railway grievances in New Zealand, and mismanagement of some kind seems likely to force tome change of system upon you before long. But New Zealand is suffering only on a small scale compared with this colony. It is calculated that at this moment we are paying upwards of £500,000 a year for salaries of railway employe's, which are purely political appointments. The Government freely admits that this is the case, and professes that the only escape is to have the whole working of the lines in nonpolitical hands, aa is now done in Viotoria with excellent results. I don't know how it is in New Zealand, but here it would appear that the more miles of railroad are open, the more people are required to work eaoh mile of it. In 1876, just ten years ago, four men were employed for every mile of railroad open for traffic. Now that five times as many miles are open, there are nearly seven men to eaoh mile, The railway servants are indeed quite an army, no less that 9900 men being daily employed upon them as a working staff. Under the ciroumetances, it is not wonderful that the colony is losing money on the transaction; but ministers evidently feel that no Government would dare to face the consequences of a sweeping reform. It is therefore to be left to a board of three experts, at salaries of £3000 a year for the chairman, who is to be imported, and £2000 each for the other membersThe state of the revenue and expenditure generally is unsatisfactory in the extreme, and public feeling is just a shade uneasy about it. It now appears, as was suspected, that the deficiency of a million and a half in the revenue of 1885 will by the end of 1886 have increased to some two millions. The Government scheme for paying it off has proved a failure, as the new customs and stamp duties are nearly balanced by the falling off in other taxes and in land sales, and the land and income taxes have both been rejected by Parliament. Nobody, however, is very much alarmed. The prospects of a very favourable season throughout the colony are so good that people are ready to expect almost anything in the way of revival of trade and the accompanying revival of revenue. The Legislative Council gave as its reason for rejecting the land tax that as long as new taxes were voted there would be no economy, and I am inclined to think that it is perfectly true. Government extravagance here is on a scale of which you have had no experience in New Zealand, as may readily be supposed when it is remembered that in the last two years the expenditure on ordinary services out of revenue has increased by nearly two and a half millions. Aa the necessary accompaniment of reckless administration we are daily discovering an enormous amount of dishonesty in Government departments. Hardly a day passes without either a new prosecution of some body for defrauding the Government, or of some two or more persons for conspiring together to do so. There are, I think, six or seven cases of this kind either being tried or awaiting trial at this moment, and the frauds are generally of a most extensive kind. In every case, so far made public, the thing has arisen from the utterly bad system, which has acted as a premium upon dishonesty. The Lands Department seems to have been the worst, and the frauds there must have amounted to sums that are positively enormous. The deferred payment syetem has in most instances afforded the means of working these frauds, and it may be well for the New Zealand Government to be careful in dealing with a similar system to see that the checks are at once simple and efficient. The capture of Caffrey after _ all these months is an unexpected vindication of justice; and it appears to have been cleverly effected by a single constable in spite of the crimwaii'fl possession at the time of a loaded revolver, and his, boasted determination not to be taken alive. As yet nothing has been • heard of Penn except what Caffrey states, and this story nobody believes. The prevalent theory seems to be that Caffrey got rid of both Penn and the girl Graham by murdering them ; but of this there is not one particle of evidence. It is muoh more likely that both have escaped in the meantime, and. that as their Capture could do Geffrey no possible good he is willing to conceal anything he may know about them. The dispute about the cable rates is attracting some attention in mercantile circles, and under any other circumstances than those in which the Ministry is placed it would not be hard to bring about concerted action for the joint purchase of a new cable. Just at present this will be difficult—not that even now they think much of £80,000, which it is understood would be the hal required from each colony for the work; but it is hardly a sufficiently attractive extravagance to be entered upon at this moment. _^_