SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9390, 1 April 1892, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

(From Our Own Correspondent. . AVellington, March 31. THE PENNY POST. After leaving the queption open to the last day of the financial year, the Government^ could not make up their minds to venture upon establishing the penny post on the first day of the coming financial year. It must have nearly swallowed in its first year the expected surplus, and there was no security that the surplus would recur next year after the new taxation had come into operation, in which case the reduction in postage might mean a heavy deficit, which Ministers were not inclined to face; so the reform which was to immortalise this Ministry and Mr Ward's Postmastergeneralship is virtually abandoned. The postponement of the decision for three mouths is a practical "cave in." The Victorian experience has terribly alarmed the Government, and in reality sealed the fate of the New. Zealand penny post. It is not thought likely to be revived with any earnestness in the coming session, because even last year there was a disposition to represent it as a concession to the richer class, and it does not appeal to those whose correspondence is numerically select. THE RAILAVAY REVENUE. I sent you yesterday the 11 months' railway revenue. To the information I then gave, I may now add that the comparatively small return for February is attributed mainly to the disastrous check to the harvesting caused by the floods in the early part of that month. It is expected that the receipts for the month, which closes to-day, will go a long way towards recovering the railways. Only an approximate balance can as yet be struck, but roughly it is calculated that the Commissioners' estimate of receipts has been just about realized. The concluding "four-weekly period" is, in fact, nearly five weeks, as it extends from February 27 to March 31, or 33 days ; and it is ■relieved that in the period of 33 days the sum required to reach the estimate has been very nearly, if not quite, reached. The expenditure, too, is a little less than the estimate, so the net profit anticipated (L.09,000) will almost certainly prove to have been secured. As a longer length of railways is in operation, the rate of the return on the capital expended is probably slightly smaller than last year, but does not fall very far short of 3 per cent. Perhaps 2_ per cent, is as close a computation as can be made at present until the figures shall have been carefully checked. . THE RAILAVAY MANAGEMENT. It is currently and very positively reported that the action of the Victorian Ministry in superseding the Railway Commissioners has greatly encouraged that section of the New Zealand Ministerial party who desire to see the political control of the railways resumed. It is known that some members of the Government at anyrate are very anxious to bring this about, and the local official Ministerial organ (of which a Minister is managing director) is hinting very plainly in this direction. I hear on very creditable authority that a "whip" of the party will be made on this question directly Parliament meets, and that if the result be favourable a bill will be brought in by the Government to abolish the commissioners. It will of course bo thrown out by the Upper House, but that will suit Ministers well enough as forming another count in their indictment against the Lords for obstructing "Liberal" measures. ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES. ♦ (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, March 31. A carpenter named Gregory Nicholls, employed in the building of a shed at Hellaby's slaughter-house, Cox's creek, was killed to-day by a fall of some timber through a derrick giving way. The timber struck him on the back of the head fracturing the skull. The man was a widower and leaves a family. The dead body found in the harbour has been identified as that of Jane Drummond, a single woman, a native of Belfast, Ireland, aged about 65 years. Patea, March 31. Last night a girl named O'Brien, aged 10 years, was terribly burned through her clothes catching fire. The child died this morning.