THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1901.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11823, 21 November 1901, Page 2

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1901.

Deapilo the contradiction by ,the Minister for Public Works of the ■rumour, that- large numbers of men are about to be from the North Island Trunk Railway works there is little doubt that there is some foundation for the rumour. The -Minister, , 5 in fact; .admits as nnich', when he says that men— how many is "discreetly left unsaid— who have finished their contracts are bfeing dispensed with until other works are arranged for, and as many men will be wanted for shearing Work is only being pushed on ott sections which can be opened shortly. These are -rather lame excuses to conceal the real reason for the partial suspension of work. It may safely be asserted that if a general election was, f tp ,bp, held next .month instead of twelve *monlhs hence plenty of work would be forthcoming, shearing or no shearing. But votes are not wanted just now, and the pushing on of the railway work may safely be sacrificed to the exigencies of the Colonfal Tfetcsury. The real' reason^fdr'the* partial suspension of operations is the want pi money. It is 'notorious' that the Treasury is about as- bare as Mother Hubbard's cup^oqrd j..payments are being, withheld as-long aB poss^bte) and moneys to the Government are being vigorously hunted up, and this- condition will rule until the proceeds of the loan now offered in London are available, relieved perhaps tot some extent by the payment of land tax next _week. It is only necessary to look at '.J-hei! official statement, of receipts and expenditure for the quar 7 ter ended September SOth to see how short of money the Government is. On the 30th , September, , 1900, the cash in tho public account amounted to ,£317,662, while advances in the hands of Gpvernment officers ,in the colony and London, together with the account, amounted to £1,115,964:, making a total of £1,433,626, against which there were Treasury Bills outstanding tto the. amount of £770^000, leaving a balance, of £663,626. A year later, 6$ -the 30th September last, ; the cash in the public account amounted to £5348, while, advances, etc., brought the total up to £942,437, against which Treasury Bills were outstanding to the amount of £890,000, leaving a balance of only £52,437. 'The , Public Works Account showed that while on the 30th" September, 190Q, there was a sum of £126,386 in the public account, at the end of" last quarter there was only £6689. The amount of Treasury Bills issued during the quarter was £90,000. The accounts would have looked even worse had the full amount of old ago pensions been' debited, for according to tho official statement only £43,320 was paid during the September quarter against £67,211 in the corresponding quarter of 1900, while in the June quarter no -payment ' at all is accounted for. This is ■& matter which seems to require explanation, for pensions are being paid every month out of some account. It is easy to see how thej shortness of cash has come about, though not so easy to see how it is to be removed, except temporarily by means of loan money raised at a high rate. Tho expenditure of the colony has been growing far more rapidly than .the revenue. While tho latter for seven months ended 31st October was' £113,358 greater than in tho corresponding period last year, the expenditure for six months — the flguros for October are not available —was £328,32>2 greater than in the corresponding six months. The difficulties referred to by the Premier some months* ago, and which he afterwards tried to explain away, had evidently a more real existence than ho was prepared to admit. The half million received from the Bank of New Zealand and the smaller loans obtained at higher <rates of intorfcst from colonial money lending institutions temporarily tided over the difficulty, but only for a time, and now it appears that the Treasury is more bare than over, and the colony will bo forced to accept tho terms, however high, of the British money; lender for tho loan now of-

jrerecL Surely the House could not have been fully aware of the financial position of the colony when it passed vote after vote in the Estimates and Supplementary Estimates, practically without discussion, and wound up by increasing members' pay twenty-five per cent. The colony is perfectly sound and its wonderful recuperathe powers have brought it triumphantly through greater financial difficulties than now threaten, but the longer the fiction of easy finance is kept up the more difficult will it be to restore the equilibrium. A boxing contest is adVertisrcl to take platte in the Theaire Royal to night. We acknowledge receipt from Mrs Turton of three parcels of books for bushmen. Messrs Hallonstein Bros. (New Zealand Clothing Factoiy) advertise a largo and varied stock of their usual high class goods. Captain Kennedy wired to-day at i 1.17 Bvtnv t— Wittd moderate tt> strdng betifreen north arid west , arid south west; barometer rise; sea moderate. On Saturday next Mr Newton King will dell by auction at his mart, on account of Mrs Stock, her nice farm of 119 acres, situated on the Albert Road. This property is within easy distance of both Inglewood antjl Ne,w Plymouth, and should prove a jiroHtable investment to anyone in want of a farm. . The Rev J. Clover lectured in the • Primitive Methodist Church on Wednesday evening, his subject being "Love, Courtship, and Matrimony." There wbr a fair attendance at the lecture, which was much appreciated. Tho speaker, wn»le making his address instructive treated his subject with the light touch whioh made it also attractive. The Town Band will play the following programme in front of the Government Buildings to-morrow evening weatuer permitting : — March, "Hurrah Boys"; selection, "Blind Boone"; valsie, "Calanthe"; selection, "Faust"; schot tische, "Beattrice"; overture "Aggregation"; valse, "Rosita"; march, "The Big • 4." God Save the King." There is a curious revelation in the return concerning' the levying cf the income tax issued in ' England at Mr MoCare's request. It showa that on February 28 over 14 million* of income tax were outstanding^ only 53 percent having been paid. In Scotland practically the whole sum, or 93 ps r cent, had been collected. The large portion of English tax outstanding means a loss |to the rc- [ venue of £36,0(^0 a mouth. ' ' '. Tbe delegates of the various societies that have the management, of the United Picnic, are requested to meet on Friday evening at 8 p.m. in the Foresters' HaJl on urgent business, wh*en the secretaries of all Friendly Societies are requested to attend. The Mayor, Mr Dockrill, and several of the Borough Councillors will be present to express their views when the best day would be to hold the picnic The Sports Committee will not meetthievening.

An official of the Parks Department of the London County Council has made the remarkable discovery that trees require sleep as well as human beings. If the conditions are not suitable for slumber in moderation the trees suffer from insomnia, pine, and die. This wonderful theory- is proved to the 4btisfaction of the parks official by the.^fact that tree? i in the Embankment Gardens cb not livi so long now, xmder tho glare of , the lights of the Hotel CeQil and the Savoy, as they used to when the darkness of the night was unbroken. ! A startling story of equine sagacity is told in the G-iobe. A horse was standing in the shafts of a carriage just outside a provincial theatre. It had a weary lodk, as of one that desired repose. Suddenly it brightened up, and before it could be - stopped it made a dash for the box office. The reasons for this unexpected behaviour gave rise to much discussion, till at last one of the crowd, more ob servant than the oth rs, pointed out that the legend "To tbe StallB" was written 1 in largo letters over the box office window. This must have been a "high school" horse. \ Quita recently the health of a teleI phone girl broke down entirely under the strain, and she was sent to her home to recruit. Pho vicar of the parish called upon her after her arrival, and to him I she poured out her woes. ' "It is not so much the work," she said, "as the worry. You ennnot imagine what it is to work 'the telephone hour after hour, day after day t , yreek after week, year after year. It,, has simply got upon -my nerves:"/ *'■* Ate <> you Bure it is the telephone ?" he sympathetically aske,c\ ,-|'Qh, yes, quite sure,'" she replied, "foj, jl [■> flnd" myself saying : 'Are you there ?' when I kneel down at night to say my Onlooker. Liverpool has (th 6 Pall Mill' Gazettesays) the biggest warehouse in tho world. It is built beside the docks, arid is in tended to : house the imports of>o bacco which form so important apattfeof Liverpool irade. The warehouse is 725£ feet in length, Jr6s feetdeep,,and 124fe;t 10 inches high. The ground area is 13,300 spuare yards,, and, the area of. the, sevetal floors 174,098 square yards.' There are at present in bond in Liverpool some 93,000 hogsheads* 'of "tobacco, weighing 50,000 tons- which is equal, roughly t s timated, to acuslgms dnjiy of £18,000,000. The coastline of New Zealand has more than, once been referred to as un dergoing slow but certain changes. Professor Pafk, in a paper laid on the table at a meeting of the Otago Institute, on the possible movements of the New^eaj land coastline, pointed out that the lan'tr was either gradually * rising or sinking. It Was highly desirable that tbe Govern [ ment should erect posts at suitable points,- carefully noting the distances from the sea at the time they were put i up, and giving all data for estimating after a number of years whether the sea" had approached or receded from these fixed points. . , j Surely with all the latest songs and j pieces of music post-free for ls< 9d each, harmony should now reign in every home. It is Messrs Jacob Harrjß & C0.,(successors to"' 'Messrs Davis & Harris), the well known firm, in 'Willis-street. Wellington, who thuV by advertisement in another column, undertake not only to, supply music (both sheet and book"), but pianos, .organs, and every adjunct at prices whioh are in proportion, just as "bed-rock." A»\ fhey pertinently say : "Wljy pay more?" i Small musical instruments (stringed and otherwise) are, by tlie way, quite a fea tijre of Messrs. Jacob Harris & Co.'s establishment. \Their stock "in tlm' depirlmentis probably not surpassed in the colony. Regarding the war between Venezuela an-3 Columbia, the following items from Reutor appear in English papers to hand by the last mail :— " New York, September 27. A telegram received here fronv Willemstad (Curacao) says it is reported there that 300 Venezuelans, with four guns, were captured, and that 600 were [ killed, a«d wounded or were reported missing, in an engagement in the Goajira Peninsula. The despatch adds that the brother of President Castro ib said to have been wounded." A later message states :— " New York, October 1. Th* following telegram has been received here from Willemstad : 'The disaster re,«- ! ported to have overtaken a Venezuelan force on the Goajira Peninsula on September 14th is fully confirmed. The Venezuelans, retiring from La Hacha, were caught on both sides of a river, the bridge across which was broken. The Columbians overwhelmed them from three sides, scattering them, and they were then ambushed by Indians.' " An urgent meeting of the delegates of the Friendly Societies' Picnic Committee will be held on Friday evening, at the Foresters' Hall, at 8 o'clook, when" 1 every member is particularly requested to attend. 0 Steams' Hoadaohc Cure i& i particularly valuable to ladiee. It is peculiarly effective in relieving pain peculiar to their sex. 0