PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1987, 7 July 1880, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

[By Telbgbaph.] [fbom ottb ownt oobeespondent.] WELLINGTON, July 6. The all-absorbing topic of discussion in the lobbies just now is the retrenchment question in its many-sided aspects. It being now recognised on all sides that large reductions are imperative, and the subject thus being taken out of more party polities, nearly every member is eager that his own scheme of economy should be tried. At least a dozen different suggestions have been made, and at present it is not easy to see what will be the ultimate solution of the great retrenchment problem. There is no doubt that Mr Reader Wood’s proposal is tho most popular and generally approved. He proposed (1) that the annual estimates of expenditure should be considerably reduced. 2. A reduction of twenty psr cent, on all salaries of £6OO per annum and upwards j a reduction of fifteen per cent, on salaries between £3OO and £6OO, and ten psr cent, on salaries between £IBO and £3oo,these reductions not to apply to the wages class. 3. The office of Agent-General to be abolished. 4. Various items of additional salary upon the estimates he not voted. 5, Salaries of the Chairmen of Select Committees be not voted. 6. The publication of “Hansard” be dispensed with. 7. The honorarium of members of House of Representatives be reduced 25 per cent, and of members of the Legislative Council 50 per cent. 8. The number of District Court Judges and R.M,’s be reduced. 9. Large reductions in the staff of officers in various departments by the amalgamation of offices and reorganisation. 10. Telegraph and postal stations which do not pay working expenses to bo dispensed with. 11. Cost of defence and volunteers to be reduced by £50,000. I hear that this meets the general views of the Government, and that they intend to carry out the principle in spirit, if not in letter, by adopting some such basis of reduction. It is strongly urged by some members that tho remodelled estimates should show tho reductions on their face without making allowance for compensation, that to be dona in special supplementary estimates, so as to have a definite basis on which to ground next year’s estimates. There is much difference of opinion about the reductions in tho Legislative class, both as to the amount and the plan on which they should be based. It is believed a majority of the members of the Upper House are willing to reduce their honorarium by 50 per cent, and those in the Representative Chamber by 25 per cent, hut there is a strong and growing feeling outside, which some members share, that tho reduction in tho honorarium should be one just double that scale, reducing that of the Lower House by one-half and abolishing the hono-

rarium to the Upper House altogether. I understand that included in the £170,000 or £200,000 per annum by which Government are willing to reduce the expenditure is £32,000 upon education. The railway expenditure will also be considerably curtailed, and the capitation allowance to all Volunteers, except in the Waikato, on the Fast Coast, and in Taranaki, be abolished at the end of six months. It is proposed to make reductions to the extent of 10 per cent, on all salaries. Messages at all telegraph stations in the country districts which do not pay will be charged at the rate of Is fid per ten words, instead of Is, as at present, and no lines will be erected unless guaranteed, and old guarantees will also be enforced. The AgentGeneral’s department will not be interfered with until the report of the Public Accounts Committee is received. Considerable reductions will be made in the number of magistrates in the colony. Such, at least, are understood to bo the ideas of the Ministry on the snbjeot.