POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12425, 7 August 1902, Page 5

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

(Fr.oi; Obji Own- ConRraroXDEST.) WELLINGTON, August 6. OLD-AGE PENSION'S. T!:o Old-age Pensions Amendment Bill, of which the Hon. C. H. Mills has charge, is designed, to make better provision against the obtn>miug of old-age. pensions by fraud. 11 provides that if a magistrate is of opinion that an applicant for a pousion has niado fraudulent misrepresentations he shall refuse the application and make an order that the applicant shall not be entitled to make a fresh application for a period not exceeding 32 months.' If a registrar has reason to hclicsve that, a pension certificate has been improperly obtained ho must cause a special inquiry to lie made bofovo the mugiatrAto, and if it is then found that it was improperly obtained it must he cancelled. Irrespective of any such inquiry, a magistrate may any time himself review any pension certificate and modify or cancel the ■same as ho deems just. A certificate must be cancelled where the holder is convicted of au offence under section 47 of the principal act, Where it is found that a. pensioner lias received an amount in excess of that to which ho is by law-.entitled tho amount may be recovered by( the Crown. Provision is also mado whereby a person otherwise qualified for a pension, but owning a. house valued at not more than £300, may transfer the same to the Public. Trustee, who will allow him to reside in it rent free, and the value of til* property will not Ikj considered when the capital value of the applicant's property is com-, putc-d. When the pensioner dies the Public Trustee will sell the property, and out of tho proceeds pay back to the Crown' co much of the pension paid since the frnnefer as but for this provision would have been payable, with interest at the rate of 4- per cent., and v nav the balance, if any, to iho persons entitled thereto. , THE 'FRISCO SERVICE. \ That implacable opponent of the San Francisco mail service. Mr Wilford, never tees an opportunity of attacking it. This morning at 3 o'clock, when the House was about half full and in a very sleepy mood, the service came up on the Estimates,- and evoked some discussion and a division upon an amendment, moved by Mr Wilford, to reduce tlie vote for the carriage of mails by sea. a? an indication to the Government- not to commence any further negotiations with the Oceanic Sierjr.-diip Company for cajTying mails via San Francisco. This was lost by 26 votes to 12, Though there is a. strong feeling in tho House against the service,, it

>s very doubtful whether the ill-advised ' amendment of Mr Wilford did any good to his party. ()n the contrary, there arc many members wlio aro of opinion that this morn'r'Ks °l"s°do did it a great deal of harm, ill' W. i raser, referring to tho statement of the 1 ostmaster-gonerul that proposals regarding the servico would bo submitted next session, said he hoped that tho existing oon- • tract would not commit tho colony for a longer period than tho time fixod for the meoting of Parliament next year, Bir •Joseph Ward re pi i oil that the colony would not bo committed m any way beyond tlie anthorit-y given by Parliament. lie liel(| tint tho Swi Francisco service should be continued, and that tlie colony should also join the Vancouver service, Ho thought Auckland should bo the terminal point m each c»se. Ho would also liko lo s '-'o tho colony have tho Federal service. He would be .prepared to submit definite proposals to the Uouso next session, The* prosent contract with tho Occttnio Company was for IB months only, and at tho expiration of that period temporary arrangements wopld be made, till Purlinrnont mot again. It was tliQn that Mr Wilford moved to roduce_tlie vote by £1 as an indication that the Houso disapproved of furthor negotiations being entered into with Mr Sprccklos. "he member for Franklin (Mr Alassey), wlio 13 always on tho qui vivo whoa this importaut service con)cs up, pointed out that tho present contract would run out on Mjy 1 of nq-xt. yoar, aml if My Wilfor4*s amond-' ment' were. carried it would mean tfwt thore would bo no fast mail service between thia cplony and Europo till Parliament met and made fresh arrangements. Aftor further dis-. cnssion the amor.dment was put and lost on tho voices, but tho member for Parnell ■ called for a division, apparently to have the votes recorded. .Tho division resulted in 13 voting for the amendment and 26 against. ■ Mr Lawry is in favour of tho service, but of course had to vote for the amendment m he called for the division. The "Ayes were:—Messrs Wilford, Symes, G. J« ' Smith, Sidey, G. W. Russell, R. M'Kenzie, I(awry, Hornsby, Colvin, Collins, Barclay, rl- O. Alloti, Tho "Noes" wore:—Messrs Bii'ddOj, Carroll, Duncan, Field, A. L. D. . Fi'ASev, Hall-Jones, Hardy, Haselden, Heke, •Herries, Kaihau, Lang, Laureneon, Lethbridge, Massey, M'Gowan, M'Nab, Meredith, Mills. Napier. O'Meara, Palmor. PiranSj B. M. Smith. Stevens, Ward. Messrs Fo\vld?- and Withcford, who were pairwl with other members, voted against the. amendment.

A RATING BILL. The Government lias introduced a bill to amend " The Rating on Unimproved Value Act, 1896." This bill (No. 2 this session) proprises to repeal subsection 1 of sootion .*> of the prinoipal net. It also provides for tlio substitution of tho 'ollowing in placo of suhscctiou 3 of scotion 451 of t-lio prinoipal act:—"Tho rato made and levied by any local authority under this act shall be so adjusted as not to oxeaod in its producing capacity tho limit of rating power on the gross ' value jrossossed .by that local authority as aforesaid.' 7 A further amendmont is that tho word n ' gross" is to be repealed in section 19 and the.word ''unimproved " substituted. This i} regarding rates ou mining property. There are two new sections in the bill, as follow:—Section 3, where, under the provisions of tho principal aot tho system of rating is changed from the unimproved vahie to the "capital or annual value, as tho case may be, ovciry continuing rate levied on the capital op annual value shall 'be so adjusted as to equal as nearly as may be, but uot to exceed in . its" producing capacity, tho rata that would bo roado and levied under the principal' act; and the proviso to section .IS of tho prinoipal act shall apply to overy such adjustment. Section 4: Where any of the rates referred to in section 20 of the principal act are required to bo levied.on the capital value, such rates shall, for the parposes of the principal net, b8 levied on the capital value as appearing on tho valuation roll; and whore such rates ato required to be levied on the annual value, such,annual value shall be deemed to bo % sum equal to 6 per centum on such capita! vaine.

JOTTINGS. • • 1 ' "Tho Waste Lands Committee recommends that the petition of Wheeler and other's regarding tho reading of Ellosmere lands.be referred to the Government. It is understood that tho commission to inquire into the affaire of the Otago. University will not be appointed till'after the general election. Mr ■ Thomson.' lias presented a petition from Tapanui settlers asking that 2000 acrej of . run 140b bo opened for close settle ment. •