PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11724, 5 August 1901, Page 5

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS AND GOSSIP.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.] -/ Wellington*,. Sunday. - ■ ■;'■; FINANCE. In reference to the supposition that the Government is in a tight , corner in regard to their finance, it may be worth mentioning that it is stated here on good authority that within the past week or two they borrowed: £100,000 from; the A.M.P. Society at four per cent. I understand a . stipulation' of the ! transaction is that the interest is payable in Sydney. This will, of course, mean an addition in the shape of exchange and loss of income tax, so that the money will cost the Government even more than four per cent. Apparently, it these facts are accurate, and I believe they are, the Government cupboard must'have been very bare indeed. THE MINISTER FOR RAILWAYS. Sir Joseph Ward, who has been confined to his house for several days owing to an attack of measles, is now much better, and will in all ' probability be able to attend Parliament again on Tuesday; CAUSES OF INSANITY. Some interesting information as to the causes which resulted in the inmates of the colony's asylums losing their .reason, may be gleaned from a table attached to the annual report of the Inspector-General of Asylums. Alcohol was responsible for 75 cases, but the significance of those figures is overshadowed by the fact that 62 cases are. classed as congenital and 37 as being due to heredity. . Domestic troubles and epilepsy each made 22 people insane, and 30 lost their reason through senile decay. Twelve cases are set down to accident, and 15 to religious excitement, while political excitement proved too much for the overwrought brain of one poor man. Six suffered from overwork four were made mad by adverse circumstances, and grief claimed one poor victim, a woman, . while in 10 cases isolation and solitude was the predisposing cause. One man went mad through disappointment in love, and another from music mania, while masturbation claimed 37 victims, and venereal diseases are the cause in seven cases. In 140 cases the cause is put down as unknown. SHOPS AND OFFICES BILL. The Labour Bills Committee of the Legislative Council have struck out from the Shops and Offices Bill the clause relating to employees of banking and mercantile institutions.