QUESTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 25

QUESTIONS.

Ministers, in reply to questions, stated that it would be impossible to introduce this session an amendment of the Rating Act in the direction of providing that the Government subsidy shall be payable upon separate rates levied upon a particular riding or ridings of a county for the purposes for which a subsidy would be payable if the rate were levied over an entiro county. The payment for valuation rolls by local authorities is to be spread over three years. It would be wrong to have two systems of valuation existing — that of the Government valuation department and thai of local authorities. One meat-exporting company in the colony had asked the Government to appoint a veterinary surgeon to inspect the meat exported by the company. The matter will be dealt with in the Slaughtering and Inspection Bill, and it that measuro failed to pass, the application would receive very careful consideration. The department know of no complaints with reference to the men employed on the cooperative works on the Manukau-Oxford-Ro-torua road. Seven thousand nine hundred copies of the map of Hororata estate have been circulated with Hansard, and there will probably be a second edition. It is questionable whether it would be wise for the Government to insist on work done by local bodies and subsidised by the Government being done under the co- operative system. Tho encouragement of young persons to provide by contributions in their early years for pensions when aged will receive the careful consideration of the Government. The question of giving collectors of customs power to detain any cargo found to be in a heated condition will bo considered by the (Jabinel.