AUSTRALIAN CABLE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1660, 14 January 1895, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN CABLE.

Per Electric Telegraph — Copyright. Per Press Association, VICTORIAN POLITICS. Melbourne, January 12. The Cabinet have considered the rejection of the Land Tax Bill, and it ia believed that the Government, for the present, will abandon the proposals contained therein and cast about among the many proposals made by members ol both Houses for a suitable scheme for balancing the national ledger. The Income Tax Bill will probably be recommitted with a slightly increased scale, and further efforts m the direction of retrenchment will be made. THE VICTORIAN BANKING CRISIS. The Age m commenting on the bank consolidation scheme says that the time is ripe for some action to provide against the possibility of difficulties arising when the deposit receipts issued by the reconstructed banks begin to mature. That State assistance should be claimed to restore general confidence m future, and that without its 'intervention little improvement is possible, it says, <«n hardly be regarded as a novel expedient, as instances might be mentioned where such interference was not only permissible but recognised as an element of strength and a background to be relied upon m cases of urgent necessity. The Age continues, " We are confronted with the fact that between the years of 1897 and 1901 the Australian reconstructed banks will have to meet a demand for the payment of deposit receipts to an extent iof £44,000,000 and this is a certainty which no amount of specious argument can get rid of. It is also equally certain that the colonies are not likely to be prepared to meet such an enormous demand when it occurs. If new deposits could be expected to replace the withdrawals of the old then there would be no difficulty. The comments of the London financial journals show clearly that such a happy solution of the difficulty is hardly likely to occur. They would, however, have 2 or 3 years' breathing time, and surely something would suggest itself during that time which would provide against troubles m the future."