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Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 841, 16 March 1903, Page 4

The Premier does right to draw attention to one aspect of onr finance not frequently touched upon. It is that which, as Mr Seddon puts it, illustrates the fact that while we owe now more than we did a dozen years ago, by no less a sum than fourteen million pounds, we pay thirty thousand pounds annually less in interest than we did then. This, of course, is highly satisfactory to us as a borrowing people. It proves at all events that whatever extra taxation has had to be imposed during *he last twelve years is not a necessity of our borrowing policy. But at that rate would not the Premier be somewhat gravelled for an answer if he were asked how it is that during that twelve years the Government of which he is head have so increased Customs taxation that it has risen from .£2 9s 3d per head in 1890 to £'2 16s 4d per head in 1901 ?—Napier Telegraph.

Municipal corporations have displayed some timidity'in the past in dealing with electrical power (says the Waikato Times). They have evidently been waiting for some data to guide them as to the proper course to take. However, Stratford and Patea, two towDs situated in the Taranaki province, have set the example, and the improvement in the lighting of those places is most marked. As far as the financial aspect of the question is concerned, sufficient time has not elapsed since the installation to warrant a comparison beiDg made with other lights and power, but we have every reason to believe that the good results which have been obtained in other countries will be also obtained in New Zealand, where nature has so liberally endowed us.

Peter Airey, M.L.A., has been asking the Philp Government a pertinent question. He wanted to know what was the use of spending £13,000 a year in assisting more people—mostly the very poor—to come to Queesland, when the Government couldn’t find employment for a very large number of people who are there already. And for all the answer he got, Airey might as well have put the question to the leper station or to Duawich Asylum.