FACTS AT A GLANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 20 July 1907, Page 2

FACTS AT A GLANCE.

Points from the Budget.

[N.Z. “Times.”]

The present holders of lease-in-perpetuity are to be offered the option of the freehold. A new scale of graduated land tax is intended in respect of owners of ,£40,000 unimproved value and over.

The land tax is estimated to .produce £515,000, and income tax £280,000, or £69,791 more than last year. : Of the existing .unsold lands nine million acres are to be, set aside as a national endowment. The residue will be offered on-the optional system. Of the land dealt with by the Native Commission, it is recommended that 307,861 .. acres be made available for European settlers.

The total remissions (fiscal and financial) amount to £429,000. - Total remissions of .Custom duty are promised to the extent of £375,000. Sugar, currants.and raisins, and all articles of infant diet, are to be admitted free.

The duty on potatoes is altered to £1 a ton, on the basis of the higher the price the greater the removal of duty. ■

Concessions to the amount of £20,000 a year are to be made by the abolition of the sheep-tax.

The Arthur’s Pass tunnel, on the Midland Railway is to be constructed by contract, at a cost of £599.794- - The sum of £350,000 out of the million loan is to be used for additions to opened lines. Inspection of dairies is to be provided for at a cost of £BOOO per annum.

It is expected that by March 31 next, only five or six miles of the Main Trunk Railway will remain' uncompleted. The sum of ,£70,000 is being voted for increased postal and telegraph facilities. Postage on inland post-cards is to be reduced from id to |d ; registered letters from threepence to twopence. The rate of interest on loans to local bodies is to be reduced by half per cent. The public debt increased d tiring the year by £1,988,000, and on March 31st last, stood at. Of the £1,988,000 added to the public debt, ,£1,472,399 was utilised for interest-producing purposes.

Land for settlement purchases absorbed £596,015, and railway construction and additions to open lines £525,000. An indirect gain of £299,500 to the colony is credited tq the Christchurch Exhibition. ' '

A high educational test is to be added to the present, poll-tax for resisting the influx of Chinese. Further legislation for infant life protection is. promised.

The excess of revenue ever expenditure for the current year is put down at ,£2x2,653, and, adding the balance from last year, ,£717,825, brings the estimated results for the current year to ,£930,478.

The cost of transit from San Francisco to New York and from New York to Queenstown of homeward mails is this yeat, set down' at ,£6850, against ,£6132 voted last year. The mail service between New Zealand and Australia is assessed at ,£5? 00 for the year ; £IOOO was voted last year ; granuities for the conveyance of letters arid printed matter cover ,£24,300 ; New Zealand and Pacific Islands’ service £I2OO (as formerlj')The Suez services are provided for to the extent of £6OOO and the Vancouver service £4OOO. The daily allowance to railway employees receiving not more than los per day, also allowances for : Sunday duty and special duty are computed at £52,809, against £45,000 last year. The grant to Cook and Niue Islands Government of an amount equivalent to the Customs duties collected in New Zealand’on goods afterwards shipped to the, ,islands is £1994 ; subsidy fot steamer service between the islands is £3OO ; printing Niue-English vocabulary, £x2s- - . The reprint of New Zealand Law Reports is estimated to cost £2OOO. Gratuities to prisoners on discharge this year are not estimated at more than last year’s figure—£6oo; travelling expenses and convej'ance of prisoners, £llOO. The tree-planting prisons absorb £6OOO.

The expenses attending the suppression of sjj’grog-sellers are computed at ; is set down as rewards for convictions. Last year the State paid ,£3OOO for tools, equipment, and field expenses of the Geological Survey ; this year £4OOO. The sum of £4500 was voted in the last financial year for the Maori exhibit at the Christchurch Exhibition, £3525 being expended ; £ISOO more is on the Estimates. Art galleries are thus provided for: Auckland £SOO, Canterbury £SOO, by way of £1 for £1 subsidies.—Same as last year. The Native Land Tenure Commission absorbs £IOOO on the Estimates. New Zealand’s portion of the estimated yearly deficiency of the Pacific cable is .£63,000. The cost of checking the overcrowding of steamers is put down for the year at ,£350 (,£3OO last year). The expenses of the delegates to the Navigation Conference are .£6OO. /

The Wool Fires Commission last year spent £800; another £4OO is wanted'. It is estimated that the expenses in connection with the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Acts for the ensuing year will be £4500 —£soo more than last year. The temporary surveyors and parties in the service of the Department of Lands and Survey cost £30,000 per annum ; temporary assistance, £21,000. Inspection and management, etc., of the settlement of forest and flax lands accounts for £BOOO. The State pays per annum for the eradication of noxious weeds on Crown Lands. Fees to members of Waste Lands -Boards last year amounted to .£1916 ; £2OOO is provided this year. It costs £2500 a year for preparing poultry for export, plucking, grading, packing, freezing, etc. The poultry farms—Ruakura ,£SOO, Maumahaki £750, Burnham ,£6OO, Milton .£BOO. A preliminary vote of £ 1000 is made for the establishment of dairy schools; the same amount was voted last year, but not expended; £SOO for expenses in connection with departmental exhibits at agricultural and pastoral associations’ shows is provided. The Education 1 Boards are to get in grants £441,000 this year for teachers’ salaries, against ,£427,000 last year; £58,000 for buildings, £13,000 for house allowances ; £6OOO for rebuilding and rents.

The boarding out of children in connection with industrial schools takes £i 2,000. , Grants to university colleges— Auckland, Victoria, Canterbury, each; Otago, .£2300, against £2060 last year. The sum of £i994 is granted to the Cook and Niue Islands Governments of an amount equivalent to Customs duties collected in New Zealand on goods afterwards shipped to the islands. Contributors’ fees, printing, etc., of the “ School Journal” are set down at £2OOO (£SOO voted last year;. The State pays m subsidies to public libraries, on the basis of voluntary contributions. Fuel and lighting in mental hospitals and hospital and charitable aid institutions cost the country £6500 a year ; soap, soda, and tobacco, £2800; water supply, burials, etc., ,£2000; rations, £27,000 ; bedding and clothing, £7500. There is a grant for refuge work on the Estimates of £4OOO ; £2OOO was voted last year. For maternity homes, State coalmines expenditure includes: £20,000 for development, £IO,OOO for depots, £IOO,OOO for Point Elizabeth colliery, and £50,000 for Seddonville colliery. Compensation for land taken for scenery purposes during 1907-8 is put down at £BOOO, with £IOOO for native lands, including historic spots.