WELLINGTON.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2106, 4 February 1908, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(Special to Times.) WELLINGTON. Feb. 3. . Urn cost of living in Wellington goes on increasing, and tho latest rise is in tho price of milk, which- is now Id a quart, -with every probability that it will be as high as Gd a quart belore very long. Butter and eggs are also dear, while house rents continue aonormally high; indeed, ■& nil any empty house in tiie city there are many applicants, and the? demand is much greater than the supply. A man with an average salary, who bus to In*© in town, is having a very' hard time of it. ' • the dry weather continues, and the country, pretty well from Auckland to Cook .Straits, is suffering in consequence. On the West Coast manv dairy farmers are not getting within from 40 to GO per cent, or their normal output. The long spell of dry weather will mean a Joss of hundreds of thousands of pounds to the country, and this, combined with the drop in the price of wool, will result in a greatly decreased general expenditure during the ooming winter.

Air. Dtithie, manager of the National Bank of New Zealand at Auckland, will leave for England shortly on six months’ leave of absence.

A persistent rumor that a prominent" Wellington business man is likely to leave for London to tike Air. Reeves’ place as High Commissioner in London has no truth in it. It is quite on the cards, however, that there mav he a change in the High Commissionership before many years are over, and there is one man in the party who has a claim upon office, the Hon. Air. IF ill-Jones. Mr. Hall-Jones is not, however, likely to resign his seat in the Cabinet before the general election if he has any hankerings after t.-he_ High. Commissionership, so there is no likelihood cf any immediate change in connection with the latter office. Mr. -John Dutliie, ex-AI-H-Rl, and a reliable authority on finance, writes in to-night’s “Post” regarding the prospective surplus -as follows: “The public is gleefully t-old cn the authority of the Right Hon. the Preriiier that the revenue for the year to 31st January last exceeds that of the previous year for the same term by £521,877. Surely in the presence of the Government- assurance that ;ho tariff on the whole carried concessions to the taxpayer, this, is atruly marvellous outcome. Is it possible that after all tho Alinisterial tariff reforms really meant an increase of taxation? If one turns to the past for guidance, tlie statistics are suggestive of something of that sort. In 1891, the year the Ballance Government succeeded to office, the amount then raised by taxation was £2,179,739, aud in 190 G-7 -the amount so raised had risen to £4 ; - 264,553, or i.early doubled, but- if we apply this to the rate per head of the mean population, the increase is at the alarming rate of 3.7 per cent. Surely this is a crushing increase, over bicli there is little room for boasting. Beyond thri, the taxpayers’ hurdi :i is further augmented by the local body -taxation. In--1895-6, the fi t year for which I find the returns :•,-affable, tbis amounted to £686,05D, iud. last year local taxation ran up to £1,338,536, being an increase : t the rate of 95 per cent. Static cal facts are, perhaps, too much lo i sight of, yet when considered th y teach a very important, and in this case, a disturbing lesson.” Tho remari s of Mr. Louis Cohen, a member of ti: 3 University Senate, on the subject ci music in -New Zealand, are likely to lead to a lively controversy. Air. Robert Parker Clever, a Wellington musician, has already taken up t-lie case on behalf of his brother prole -.sionals, and in regard to one phase of Air. Cohen’s criticism he writes;—“There can be no doubt whatever that a course of study in such institutions as those in London or Leipsig is a. very admirable thing for the profession, but I venture to say there are in Wellington, and other cities of the Dominion, score; of young teachers locally trained who are now doing admirable work, work which could: hardly be improved by any scheme of musical education—work, I may add, which year by year draws unstinted prais- from English musicians who visi. us as examiners, and surely it is a childish thing to complain in these early days of the fewness of cand dates- for musical degrees in our infant university. Is Air. Cohen aware that in Oxford aud Cambridge, v itli their enormous prestige and then annual output of hundreds of graduates in arts, the number of -bachelors of music increased each year is extremely small. I think I. may safely say that in the combined universities there are not a dozen.” At the annual meeting of the Wellington Gas Company, the chairman said that- the past year was the very best in the i.Jinpany’s. history. The profits exceeded- those of the previous year by £609, and but for the poor quality of a good deal of the coal supplied the result would have been fully £: TOO better. 111 view of an increased expenditure on the new works, there is to be no reduction in the price ci gas. The chairman mentioned fl at the -proposed extensions had he' ii deferred owing to the risk that- us; d to exist- of gas works throughout- New Zealand being municipalised, but- that inquiries made recently had convinced the directors that there v. as less risk now than there was t ! en« and the abnormal increase latr’v made in the demands for gas mad ■ extension imperative. Holders o' Wailii shares are now asking £9, 1 it the highest offers on ’Change to d;y were £S 15s. Talismans are on offer at £2 13s. Little or no share business was done here to-day.