Political Notes and Comments.

Southland Times, Issue 13339, 16 October 1895, Page 2

Political Notes and Comments.

(By Telegraph.)

(from our own correspondent).

Wellington, Oct. 15.

Nearly seven months of the financial year have gone ; Parliament has been 117 days in session, and yet the Public. Works Statement is not in sight. It is expected to be brought down on Friday, but considering that it involves the expenditure of considerable sums of money it should have been in the possession of the House long ago. The paramount duty of the House is supposed to be the strictest and most comprehensive criticism of all expenditure,, but how it can do so in the case of the Public Works Statement, when that document is kept back as it has been this year is a Chinese puzzle. The Deceased Persons Estates Duties Act Amendment Bill provides that all property shall be aggregated for the purpose of determining the rate of duty. ■‘L3OO” is substituted for “ LlOO ” in the original Act as the limit of exemption from duty, and the refund of half the duty hitherto conceded in the case of the children or grandchildren of a deceased person is extended by the bill to the wife or husband of the deceased.

The Government has introduced a Stamp Act Amendment Bill whereby it proposes to exempt fiom stamp duty all statutory declarations made under the Local Bodies Loans Act, 1886, and the Government Loans to Local Bodies Act, 1886. Section 7of the Act of 1885 is extended to apply to the business of accident, 'fidelity guarantee, live stock or plate glass insurance. The bill also provides that 11 whenever there is no possible means of discovering what is the maximum value of the consideration dealt with under a lease, then the duty payable in respect of such lease shall be affixed at the sum of L 5. ’ In order to prevent the avoidance or evasion of duties by family arrangements or other, wise the definition of “ deed of gift ” in section 7 of the Stamp Act Amendment Act, 1891, is extended to include every deed or instrument whereby any person directly or indirectly, 'conveys,, transfers, or otherwise disposes of property to or for the benefit of any person connected with . him by blood or marriage; and in assessing the duties payable in respect of such property no deduction shall be made in respect of such benefit or advantage.”

When the House went into committee this afternoon on an Imprest Supply Bill Sir Robt. Stout moved that tho chairman should report progress. This he did as a protest against the action of the Government in withholding information concerning their se'zure or appropriation of the sinking funds by the issue of debentures to the amount of L 145.400. Ministers say that the information will be given in due course in next year’s Financial Statement, but they refuse to give it in the meantime on the ground that the Opposition ask for it solely for the purpose of making capital out of it in the country to tho prejudice of the Government. However, information or no

information, there remains the fact that the Government appropriated the sinking funds in question because their other financial resources were not equal to the demands made upon them. . . Mr McGuire says that the Minister of Education snaps at members' “ like something on a chain.” Mr G. Hutcheson is to ask the Treasurer whether the adjustment of the station accounts under section 16 of the Bank of New Zealand and Banking Act has yet been made, and if so, what amount is thereby to be added to the L 2,731,706 guaranteed by the colony for the properties transferred to the Realisation Board ? Mr Duthie desires to know whether, m the knowledge that the price of money has been declining for the last quarter of a century, and in view of the fact that all financiers and economists of standing agree that the same steady reductions in the rate of interest must continue, the Government has made calculations as to the loss the colony will suffer through the currency of the last loans being fixed at the Jong periods of fifty years instead of the more reasonable term of, say, twenty-five years, and if so whether the Treasurer will be good enough to lay the calculations on the table or at least inform the House of the amount of the calculated loss. The Reserves Disposal and Exchange Bill provides inter alia that the School Commissioners of Otago may [exchange with the Mataura Town Board section 7, block 13, Mataura, for sections 1 and 15, block 5. The bill also empowers the Governor to sell the whole or any portion of section 156, Oreti Hundred, reserved.in 1878 for gravel and other public purposes. The Public Works and Government Railways Act Amendment Bill empowers the Minister and local bodies in respect of road bridges, etc., to classify all vehicles and prescribe a maximum and minimum width of tires. The bill also provided that if the quantity or weight of any goods delivered to be carried upon a railway be understated in the consignment note, the consignor or the person responsible for such understatement shall be liable to a charge of double its ordinary rate on the actual weight or measurement of the goods in question and also to the charges for loading and unloading such goods in addition to any penalty which may be inflicted under the Act of 1894.