LOBBY GOSSIP AND NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 28, 10 July 1902, Page 6

LOBBY GOSSIP AND NEWS.

Already Sir J. G. Ward has won golden opinions from mjmb'-rs on both tides of the House for the business-like way in which the work of the sess on was inaug urated. The Governor's speech was concise and to tba point, and the Acting- Premier's speeches in reference to tho illness of his Majesty, the honor conferred on Captain Russell, etc., were moiela of dictiou and good taste, the right thing being said in the right place The Old Age Pensions are moun'ing up. For the year ending March 31 the amount was over £207,000, about £10,000 more than the previous year. This is equal to a tax of about 5s per head of the whole population. About one person in every 65 is a pensioner. Notwithstanding the introduction of penny postage during the year ending March H-t tht» gros-t revenue was only £15,262 leas than that of tho prefedi g 12 months. Ono result of the lowering of the podtevge ra'e \va-< th^t there was a-i increase of 13,000,000 Otters During th" year cU"»e on 50 000,01)0 letters were posted in this Colony, which m (qual to (>2 letters per head of the population, and i« behe\ed to b-i f ho record lor th< world. The toi.il r. ii.r, unt to du> credit of depositors in the Post Office Savings Hank o?/ iKeembpr .51, »as £0,350 013, being an increase of nearly ha f v. million t-teilir g en thts pievious year. There a is tt lephti'i- (xebbi'ge (direction in New Zealand for every I*o vx-rson*, the number being U2GO. To judge from the amount in Old A^e Pensions Auckland feenis to be a very healthy place to live in, as the number of p* nmoners there if about two and a half times that of Wellington and ono and a half t mes th^t of Christchurch or Dunedin. The annual amount paid in the principal centres is — Auckland, £U,821 ; Dunedin, £31.186; Chribtchurch, £2i),064 ; Wellington, £17.823. The Acting Premier stated in the House on Friday that tenders for the erection of the new ralway station at Dunedin would be called for shortly The total earnings of the Government Railways for the past financial year amounted to £1~874,586, or an increase of £147,350 over the previous year, and presents the highest level as yet reached by the railways of the Colony. After deducting the expenditure, amounting to £1,252,237, there is a net profit accruing of £022,349, against £50 ( J,388 for the previous year.