TOPICS OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4395, 28 June 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE TRAMWAY DRIVERS. The City Council is reported to have taken £4OO more during the week of the Duke’s visit than is usually derived from the passenger traffic in the winter months. The opinion is expressed that the tramway employees should share in the windfall. The Mayor consulted Mr Hall, the manager of the trams, on the subject, and his Worship reported to the Council last night that Mr Hall ~ad suggested that tne drivers, guards, stablemen, traffic manager and cashier, should divide amongst them £lO2, in sums varying from £2 to.£s each. Councillor Luke said this was a matter which siiould not have been brought up in open Council, before being referred to the Tramways Committee. He moved— That the matter be referred to the com* mittee; to report to the next meeting of the Council. This was agreed to. Indications are that Mr Hall’s proposals will be modified in committee. UNEMPLOYED, IN NEW SOUTH WALES. A vivid contrast is presented by the state of the laoonr market in the Mother Colony, as compared with the conditions prevailing in New Zealand. Our troopers who went to South Africa have all been glad to come back to this country, ana are rapidly being reabsorbed in our industrial life. The state of affairs in Australia is set forth in a letter to the editor from Mr A. W. Pearse, of 8, Spring street, Sydney, who writes ; —Last Thursday, anyone walking down Pitt street, Sydney, would have noticed thousands of fine young fellows of all classes in the community gathered outside one of the shipping offices. On makinor inquiries you would have been told that these men were all eager to get away to South Africa, and were there in answer to an advertisement for a few men to go in the Morayshire in charge of horses. Amongst them were many of our men in uniform, who had only just returned from the war in the same ship, and who never wanted to come back hero at all, only they were forced to. In reply to the inquiry, “Why do you wish to go tiwavP” they all bad the same answer: “There is nothing ahead of us in this country; 25s a week is all we can look forward to, and we have a chance there.” Isn’t this a dreadful thing to see and hear? And yet our rulers publish glowing reports and try to make people believe we are prosperous. Democracy, as we have practised it, is the biggest fraud in the world and has caused this present fiasco. Capital and people have stopped coming here • our poulation and birth rate returns are s»d reading; our boys and girls are taught to look to Government for everything, therefore there is an utter absence of ambition or initiative among them that is most noticeable. Government railways, run only for dividends and votes, and certainly not for the people, are a curse, and doing a lot to increase the general ruin. And further than that, our debt is increasing to an alarming extent.

THE PROPOSED TRADES HALL. A memorial from the Trades and La. hour Council, asking for a grant of land on which a Trades Hall might be erect ed, was read last night to the City Council, which also received a deputation. representing the applicants. Mr Wm. Naughton, president of the Trades and Labour Council, explained the proposal. and stated that for a considerable period that body had been hampered by want of suitable accommodation, ©apeciallv in view of the growing strength of the" unions. It was the aim of the Trades and Labour Council to become an educational institution, a school of

industry, or a mechanics’ institute in the best .-.i'lisn of I lie tonn. The building lo ho constructed on I lie site would eo>t £2600, and the money would he raised hy tVie issue of dehent uiv.,. An - other member of the deputation lineini' spoken, Mr Naugliton, in answ ( .r to a question, said that it was not proposed to trenail upon (he work of the Technical School. They did not intend to enter upon the work o[ technical edn cation, but only to educate the woraer-> in a social and political sense. io that end, they had already termed a library containing works on political economy and kindred .subjects. Mayor pointed out that before the Uty Council would have power to grant a Bite at a peppercorn rental, a bill would would have to lie put through J ..filament. Finally the matter was re ei real to the Legislation Committee, with instructions’’to promote a Udl empowering the Council to set aside land for educational and physical training pur. poses. buildings IN NEED 01’ repair. By some anomaly of the law, a municipal council, whilst it has power to remove insanitary buildings, cannot cm - pel an owner to repair lus building it it L in need of repair and .at the same time not sufficiently dilapidated to require to be removed. Such is the law as quoted to the City Council last night by the Mayor in reference to two houses in Mulgravc street about whicu » letter had been written by the 1 üblic Health Department. It had been alleged that these buildings wero overcrowded arid in an insanitary condition, but when the Corporation authorities saw them, the Mayor explained, there Was no overcrowding, and the medical officer oonld not find that the condition cf the buildings was such as to require that they should be removed. Unfortunately, there was no middle course. The Council had pointed out to tho owner the necessity for repairs, but beyond that it was powerless. Councillor Luke thereupon moved that the matter should bo referred to tho Legislation Committee with a recommendation that an effort should bo made to have the law amended in the coming session of Parliament. He thought the power to compel an owner to make repairs was just as necessary for the Council as the power to compel him to make proper drainage. Th 0 motion was agreed to. RAILWAY RETURNS. The railway returns for the , fourweekly period ended May 25Ui give the following results for tho different sections :—Kawakawa, revenue £132 16 s Od, expenditure £l7O Cs; Whangarei, revenue £1143 18s 7d, expenditure £B3B 10s 8d; Kaihu, revenue £9Ol Os Id, expenditure £473 11s 3d; Auckland, revenue £11.324 Cs Bcl, expenditure £lO,037 10s 4d; Wellington-Napior-New Plymouth, revenue £33,261 18s Id, expenditure £26,638 Os Id: total, North Island (840 miles), revenue £49,76-1 Os 2d, expenditure £37,157 18s 4d. Hu-runui-Bluff section, revenue £81,530 Os 7d, expenditure £61,946 19s sd; Westland, revenue £0297 9s 3d, expenditure £3925 9s 9d; Westport, revenue £4972 Og 6d, expenditure £2222 Is 7d ; Nelson, revenue £IOBO 16s Id, expenditure £IOB7 10s Id ; Picton, revenue £914 2s 3d, expenditure £760 7s Id: total South Island (1383 miles), revenue £93,794 8s Bd, expenditure £59,942 7s lid. Grand total: Revenue, £143,658 8s lOd; expenditure, £97,100 6s 3d. For tho corresponding four-weekly period of 1900 tho figures were as follows: —-Revenue, £132,366 18s 9d; expenditure, £86,945 2s 7d. The estimated cost of construction of all opened lines to the 31st March. 1901, is £17.207,328, and of unopened lines £1,022,729. CONFLICTING LAND LAWS. What arc called perpetual leases are now a thing of the past tho tenur* in question being superseded by the optional system, under which land can be acquired from the Crown for cash subject improvement conditions; on license with right of purchase, or on lease in perpetuity (999 years). The perpetual lease provided for in the Land Acts of 1885 and 1887 gave the holder the right of purchase if the title was applied and paid for within twelve years from the date ef lease. In some instances the lessees have allowed this term to expire, and the question arises, “ Can t hey now obtain their Crown grants?” Certain clauses in the Land Acts are somewhat conflicting and ambiguous, and the Wellington Land Board, after consulting the best authorities available, has been given different opinions .on the subject. At yesterday’s meeting of the Board it was decided to state a case with a view to getting the opinipn'ldfl) file Supremo Court on tba subject. PAYING THE BILL. The hill passed last night for payment by the City Council for the Royal reception amounted to £IOBO 17s sd. This sum was made up as follows;—Mr Carmichael, citizens’ arch, £2OO 10s, and staging‘at Town Hall site, £250; Mr Toomath, illumination of offices, £119; Messrs Keith and Hutcheson, steel masts, £6O; Messrs Prouso Bros., timber, £220 0s lOd; Messrs Stewart Bros., timber, £194 9s 2d; Mr Knight, flags.£42 15s 6d ; D.I.C. , flags, £3 Is lid. Councillor Tolhurst, when th e accounts wore presented, said there were certain items, amounting to £9OO, which should not be passed by the Council. The Mayor : ‘ The Council has already passed the £1000.” Councillor Izard: “I haven’t. I am not going to vote for the expenditure of any money illegally.” Councillor Evans asked whether a division would be in order? The Mayor: “It will bo out of order.” Mr Aitken repealed that the point raised by Mr Tolhurst hod already been decided by the Council. In answer to another question, tho Mayor said that there was nothing to prevent any member of the Council from having his nam 0 recorded as voting against these accounts. At this Messrs Izard, Tolhurst, Evans and Luke asked to have their names recorded in this way, and the accounts were then passed.