LOBBY GOSSIP AND NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 14 September 1899, Page 20

LOBBY GOSSIP AND NEWS.

It is said in the lobbies that every effort' will be made to terminate the session about the end of the first week in October, as many of the members are anxious to get back to their districts, where opponents are already engaged in canvassing for votes in view of the General Election. Should Parliament rise at that time it is evident that there will be a wholesale ' slaughter of innocents,' and some necessary and us3ful measures will have to be sacrificed. Up to the present very little useful work has been done ; the only thing members can lay claim to is that they have managed to fill an average number of pages of Hansard with speeches of a very inferior kind. As reciprocity with the proposed Australian Commonwealth will be talked of to a certain extent at the coming general election, the following figures relating to the trade between New Zealand and the six sister colonies, compiled by Mr. Tanner, will be of interest. The statistics are for the twelve-year period, 1887-1898 : [New Zealand's total exports to Victoria in the above period amounted to £6,420,843, but our imports from that colony in the same time show £514,822 less— a balance of over half a million ia our favour, New South Wales has always been our best customer, taking from us £8,953,834 worth of exports, whereas our purchases from New South Wales totalled but £6,723,258— a balance of over two millions on the side of New Zealand. With South Australia our trade has always been much less, amounting to £358,438 in the twelve years, but again our imports are £112,686 less. From West Australia the imports into this Colony have never been more than nominal, but in the last seven or eight years our exports to that colony have risen so satisfactorily that against a total of £340,374 exports we have only £21,493 of imports, the balance of £318,081 being again to the good. The case is different with Queensland and Tasmania. Our exports to the former colony have steadily decreased, and our imports inoreased till out of £856,765, representing our imports, we are £211,143 to the bad, our exports being deficient to that amount. With Tasmania our trade has been steadily maintained with little fluctuation, oar exports thither totalling £420,678, but our purchases exceeding that sum by £58,683. Altogether our exports to the six oolonies in the twelve years named total £17,139,819, and our imports from them were £2,907,130 short of that aggregate.