WANT OF CONFIDENCE MOTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2886, 26 October 1895, Page 3

WANT OF CONFIDENCE MOTION.

(Press’ Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 24. A Supplementary Order Paper has just been circulated (11.38 p.m.) which seems to show that the persistent statements of Sir Robert Stout as to the seizure of the whole of the sinking funds of the local bodies had been fully proved before the Public Accounts Committee. According to the Order Paper, Mr G. Hutchison is to move on going into Committee of Supply That this House views with regret the action of the Government in raising money on debentures issued against the sinking funds of local bodies’ loans, the accumulations of the last three years amounting to £64,597, and the payments in respect of the present year amounting to £20.812, or a total of £85,200, which has been placed to the credit of the general revenue, and that this House considers the payments by local bodies of sinking funds on their loans should not be continued under such circumstances, and that restitution should b« made in respect of the sinking funds against which moneys have been already raised in aid of the general revenue.” This puts the prorogation of Parliament into further perspective, and opens a prospect of the most sultry debate of the session. Recurring to the proceedings of the Public Acooun s Committee, it is current in the lobbies that the Treasurer gave evidence to-day, and had to disclose the information so persistently refused to the House, as to the Local Bodies’ Sinking Funds, and that the Under-Secretary for the Treasury had to undergo a very searching cross-examination. Events are conspiring to make the end of the session the reverse of agreeable to the Government.