THE ESTIMATES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 11

THE ESTIMATES.

(Feoai Ottk Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 9.

The salary of the Inspector of Prisons lemains at £700. A sum of £250 is on the Estimates for the promotion of the sale of \ T ew Zealand produce in the United Kingdom. A similar sum was voted last year, but nothing was spent. The salary of the Secretary of Cuftoms is nu>d to £650, an increase of £25. Under the heading Marine a now item of £500 is put down for iron buoys. The grant in-aid for deep-sea trawlers (£4000),. voted last year, was not spent, and is allowed to drop off the Estimates this year. J'he secretary of Stamps is to have his salary raised by £50 to £550, and there are several^ other small increases in this department. £4800 is down in connection with the new issue of stamps. £5000 was voted last year, but only £1908 expended. £2100 is down for manual and technical instruction. £1999 was spent last year. The £4000 voted for the Victoria University was not spent last year, and this year the item is transferred to permanent charges under special acts. Provision is made for Sn Assistant-Inspector of Asylums at a salary of £750. A sum of £404 is put down for the expenses of the Royal Commission on the Gum Industry. The Private Benefit Societies Commission cost £547. The salary of the Secretary for Agriculture is raised to £550. £1016 was expended last year on experimental stations, and £3000 is to be voted this year. Though £1000 was voted for the establishment of dairy schools last year only £158 was spent, but £1500 i? to be voted this year. £6639 was spent on cool storage for dairy produce, and £7000 is asked for this year. £1200 is asked for grading dairy produce, and £2000 is provided for compensation for cattle destroyed for tuberculosis and other diseases. A similar sum was voted last year, but only £150 was spent.

Thirty-six more miles of railway are provided for this year. £1000 is voted for expenditure on Government House, Wellington; £811 was spent last year. £1000 is lo be voted for Parliamentary Buildings; the same amount was voted last year, and £5874was spent. The salary of the Under-secrelary for Defence is to be increased lo £425. The Commander of the Forces gets £700, and his staff officers £300. As formerly, £15,000 is down for volunteer capitation allowance ; £11,385 was spent last year. £600 is provided for rifle shooting prizes, and £3000 for volunteer encampments. The cost of the latter last year was £1037. For the purchase of Martini-Henry and other ammunition £10,000 is provided, as against £3495 spent last year. The expenses in connection with Native disturbances at Kawene were £1500, and expenses in connection with sending the military contingent to England, including a team of marksmen, amounted to £2793. £500 is, as usual, provided for the New Zealand Institute, and £772 for railway passes for the I'ire Brigade delegates to the meeting in March last. £200 is down as a bonus for discovery of coprolites, £500 for the felt industry, and £3000 to aid the flax industry. Another £500 is provided for special messages per Router's Company, though only £42 was spent last year. There is no grant in aid for Fire Brigades' annual demonstration, and the vote of £300 for the introduction of Rocky Mountain sheep is allowed to lapse. The following sums are clown for the conveyance of mails by sea: — Bluff and Stewart Island services, £300 ; Invercargill, Cromarty, and Te Oneroa, £360; Chatham Islands seryice, £300; Blind Bay service, £125; San

Francisco service, £20,000; Vancouver service, £7500; cost -of transit from San Francisco to New York and from New York to , Queenstown of Homeward mails, £6016 ; cost i of transit from Vancouver to New York and New York to Queenstown of Homeward mails, £800; interprovincial service (San Francisco service), £3000; interprovincial service (Vancouver service), £3000 ; Suez sorvicps, £1000 ; J mail agents and travelling allowance, £1500 ; j Auckland and steam services, £900 ; Hokitjka and southern ports and Woslporl and Karamoa services, £800 ; Fiji service, £1600 ; New Zealand and Pacific Islands terv^e, £1200: Great Barrier service, £250; Wellington and Pelorus Sound service, £190; salary resident agent San Francisco, £30 ; Postal Union transit charges, £500; contingencies, gratuities, etc., £11,500.

The total votes for the Police department is £113,400, as against £109,000 for last year. £6400 has been set down for the 50 additional third-class constables, at 7s a day. Thsn there is extra pay to 15 constables doing plain clothes duty and 10 district and assistant clerks at Is a day, making a total of £450. There is no provision for inspectors under the Licensing Act, who received £600 last year. Tho sum of £600 is put down as expenses and rewards attending the conviction of sly grog-sellers.

The total vote of the Department of Lands and Surveys is increased from £132,900 (of which £122,500 was expended) to £109,200. A vote of £2000 appears for Native 'and j urchaso surveys. There was no provision for this last year. The sum of £300 is set down for the acclimatisation of fish, animals, etc. The amount is the same as in 1898. The sum of £600 is voted for the Old Soldiers' Commission expenses, £687 being expended on the commission during the previous year. A. balneologist and his expenses are again sefc down at £1000. The Valuation department shows a decrease from £39,500 (of which £37,100 was expended) to £23,100. Tho amount voted for State forests is £iOOO, as against £5190 last year; £700 being pro/ie'ed for overseers, as compared with £450 last year, and the vote for fencing, planting-, elc., being £5000, as against £3300. Provision is made for expenses in maintaining the various sanatoriums. For the compilation of the early history of the colony £]50 is provided.

The salary of the magistrate at Invo.iavgill is to be increased from £425 to £450; the clerk and sheriff from £225 to f 9 -* O. A shipping clerk is provided for in the Dunedin customs at a salary of £ISO per annum. There is no vote this year for the clerk in Mines department, Dunedin. The repairs to the torpedo boat at Port Chalmers cost £11;:.