POLITICAL NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 87, 21 July 1910, Page 6

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE BUDGET—A SPARRING MATCH. | (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent). Wellington, Tuesday Night. The Budget of 1910 was in the usual i sitting of full galleries and close at-j tention. It got its usual rapid delivery | and its customary short, somewhat! jerky, applause at irregular intervals, i The rapid reading, as a matter of fact, I never does lend .itself to applause, as me I listeners are afraid to miss something from that breathless delivery, which | shoots off the headings in closest proxim-, ity to the closing stops of the preceding paragraphs. When the end came there-j was a general air of surprise, for there had been a general expectation to near! the building programme. This, I under--stand, will be in the Public Works State-1 ment later on. Without it there is, as seems to be the general opinion in the lobbies, plenty of meat to keep Parliamentary j'aw.s travelling for a good while. That, indeed is the key-note of the dis cussion which, as usual, followed the reading of the Budget. Mr. Massev, on being informed by the Premier that he intended to take the debate ore Friday, objected, partly on the ground that papers were not forthcoming, but chiefly because there would not be time to master the details. The Premier chaffed him about his unreadiness; and| he then supported him warmly. Sir Joseph promised consideration, but would not decide off-hand to postpone till Tuesday. He wanted work, and seeing the other side would not work finance at, the time announced, he offered to bring down the gambling resolutions on Thurs-i day. The other protested, and tried to make a point: Would Sir Joseph dispense with! the resolutions and bring in a Bill! Straight to the point: No, sir, not much, would he. He knew that tie enemy could combine—the bookie and the tote—in a stand against the Bill, but he would take care to keep them separate, and that would only be done by taking the resolutions one at a time separately. Then he told the enemy that they could not stop him from, "supply" on Friday by process of interruption, and worried them out of their protests. Then his little game appeared. He would introduce an Imprest Supply Bill on Friday. Therefore if he did that, postponing the financial debate till Tuesday. would the Opposition guarantee to let it go through unopposed? An emphatic shout in the negative answered him. "Why," he asked, with the utmost innocence. "Because it is an opportunity to talk about things," they said. "But you can do that in the financial debate," he protested. No; they would give no guarantee,and the House adjourned on the understanding that the decision re the debate would be given shortly. Thus ended the sparring match, honors being easy.

THE CRY FOR ROADS. KINO COU'NTRY DEPUTATION TO MINISTERS. THE STRATFORD-ONGARUE RAILWAY. A large deputation, described by Mr. W. T. Jennings (member for Taumarunui) as "united, determined and reasonable," placed before the Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward), and the Minister for Public Works (Hon. R. McKcnzie) on Monday the resolutions passed at a recent conference of local authorities of the King Country. A statement on the general demand for public works expenditure was made by the Prime Minister to show the enormous requirements ot the country. A SETTLED QUESTION.

"We have already announced that it is to lie done," commented the Prime Minister, when 111'. Jennings mentioned that the conference unanimously desired that native lands should be subjected to the same rating provisions as 'European land, "I don't see what use it is to ask me to do something we have promised to do, unless you doubt my word." "Xot at all," replied Mr. Thompson (Taumarunui), who had been asked to | deal with the point, He did not pursue it. The next point was the roading and bridging of the King Country. "You caused many an eye to shine brightly when you announced that forward policy," said 'Mr. Jennings, "and for two years they were pleased, but this year there has been reasonable cause for dissatisfaction." Other speakers suggested that the road-making weather passed away before grants voted were authorised for expenditure, so that the process ought to be facilitated. It was unfair to ask counties to expend Government grants unaided, and 5 per cent, should be added for administrative purposes. Mr. Shaw (chairman of the Kawhia County Council) said that his was one of the' most isolated in the King Country . The settlers were highly gratified with the ■Oovcrnment's expenditure on roads until a year ago, but since then scarcely £IOOO had been spent in his county. The county was financially weak because of the existence of so much unrated native land. The construction of the StratfordOngarue railway from the Ongarue end was urged by Mb. Ryan, the pioneer settler of that district, who said the main road was impassable for wheeled vehicles seven months in the year. Several sawmillers only worked three months annually, and the settlers only got sixpence or sevenpence per pound for their butter-fat, whereas the return in old settled districts was teupence to a sh.illing. ~ Mr. Loveday, a. settler from Ohura, said it cost £3 to £3 10s a ton to cart flour into that district, while the' cost of getting it to settlers south of Mangaroa, forty miles from Ongarue, was more than the value of a packhorsij. He urged the national value of having an alternative route via Stratford between the north and south of the Island,

"THE TROUBLE OF THE DOLLAR." "The Government is very.anxious to do all it can to help in every legitimate way," said the Prime Minister as a preface to his reply. It was a mistake to suppose that the large sum of £GOO,W)O placed on the Estimates last year for roads was not expended. As a matter •f fact, more had been spent, so that any local difficulties which had arisen had not resulted in the keeping back of the expenditure. If the system of handing the expenditure on road to local bodies was to be accompanied by a deduction of 5 per cent, for administration, there could be no doubt that it would be preferable to revert to the old system, because the 5 per cent, deduction meant j £17,000 or £lSjooo a year. The Go-' vernment had not yet gone into the proposals for public works this session, and would not do so in detail for a month or six weeks, when the question of con-1 strutting the railway from the Ongarue end would be considered. As in private affairs, the Government had the "almighty trouble of the almighty dollar." | It was trying to meet a tremendous run on expenditure, and the Government had annually to shut its eyes to demands for expenditure ranging from eight to twelve millions before starting to make allocations.

TAUMARUXUI'S BIG SHARE. "I'd like to make a good metalled' road to every Settler's floor in New Zea-I land," said the Hon. E. McKenzie, "but they must wait tlieir turn." He produced a return which indicated tnat £200,090 had been expended in the Taumarunui electorate during the last two years. If the rest of New Zealand had a similar amount in proportion to its population, the expenditure on roads and bridges would be about £8,000,000 annually. During the last three months £15,371 had been expended in the electorate, which enjoyed as much expenditure as any other two electorates in the country. Mr. Jennings suggested that the figures were wrong. He had a return from the Minister to prove his point, signed by a Government auditor. Mr. McKenzie: And I'm quoting from a copv of it! He added that, having had illustrations of the expensive results of mistakes, the Public Works Department was obliged to examine the plans of local works, but he was not insisting on this when the work was going to cost 1 less than £250. A good many of the troubles would be obviated if he could visit the district, and he intended to do j this. He thought it would be a mistake to start the railway from both ends, as it would necessitate double staffs. Another point was that the railway would be nearly useless for the first eighteen miles from Ongarue.