PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 11996, 24 July 1907, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

From Our Own Correspondent^ (By Telegraph ); ~~*» Wellington, July 22L THE PUIiLIO TRUST OFFICE. The Public Trust Office accounts for the year ending Maroh 31st last snow that the balances in hand totalled £2,152,313. The chief items were as follows— Wills and trusts, £1,471,904; Intestacies, £137,751; Government Railways Superannuation Fund, £110,736; Mental patients, £81,615; West Coast Settlement Reserves, £48,645; Civil Service Kef orm Act, 1886, £47, 402. The balance to credit of the profit and losa account on March 31st was £47,551 19s 2d. The chief souroes of revenue were as follows :—^Balance from previous year, £38,844 5s sd; Commissions and charges, £16,844; Interest, being surplus from investments, £15,688. FRIENDLY SOCIETIES' REPORT. The annual report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies has been presented to Parliament. The total number of registrations during 1906 was thirty six. The five hundred Lodges which furnished returns for 1906 showed a total 'membership of fifty three thousand seven hundred aud fifty-nine, and their total funds amounted to no less than £1,057,281, or an average capital per member of £19 13s 6d. The amount of sickness benefit paid was £52,903 in |1906, equal to £5 14s 4d per member sick, or 14s 2d perfweek. The funeral benefit paid amounted to £9496, or 3%d per member. The practice of borrowing benefit funds for management expenses, says the report, shows a tendency to increase, and must be checked ; as the use of the funds for such purposes is depriving the benefit funds of the earning power necessary to maintain the profit rate wbioh will insure the solvency Jof the societies. The report also dealß with the necessity of safeguarding the benefit funds, ana the desirability of poviding for a thorough efficient audit. The report states tbas ; there are four hundred, and four : unclassified societies, sports one hundred and seventy six, musical seventy one, social sixty eigbt, and various eighty nine. It is pointed out that there Jis no means provided of j ascertaining whether such a society is conducting ate operations in conformity with the registered objects. THE LAND ENDOWMENTS. Tbe bill for the disposal of the endowment lands does not state clearly upon what terms the nine million acres of land proposed to be reserved js to be leased, and some confusion has arisen in the minds of the members. As a result of this, several interpretations have been placed on , the clause which provides for leasing of the land. Speaking to a Lyttelton Times reporter this afternoon, the Premier said ; that tbe idea of the Government was that the land should be let on a s ixtysix years' lease, with the right of renewal at a revaluation for periods of tbirty-tbree yeare' lease. This proposal may be modified, he said, but a long lease will , be necessary, because a good deal ' of tbe endowment land will be bush country, and will have to be broken in by the* tenants. The present intention of the Government . is to give a sixtysix years' lease ior a start