POLITICAL NEWS AND NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 132, 13 September 1910, Page 8

POLITICAL NEWS AND NOTES

1 iA(' K- H LOCK DI V }■• ! C V LTIES. According to a petition presented to Parliament by Mr. Massey, a number of settlers on Te Akau "B" block, llaglan County, are in rather sore straits. Petitioners, who number 24, state that the information as regards roads on the posters issued when the land was opened was most misleading. The actual position is that the main access road from. Ngaruawahia'to Mangati village is not yet nearly completed. The Tamatoki lload to the Kirikiri landing is absolutely inaccessible and the main access road from Deep Water at Raglan Harbour, which was described as "well forward," is far from being completed ana is absolutely impassable. In the absence of possible roads freight charges from Ngaruawahia are £6 10s per ton. It costs £3 10s a ton to bring fertilisers from Auckland via Ngaruawahia in the summer and £7 in the winter. Had the Kirikiri landing road been opened the freight would have been 31s. Further, this road would tap milling timber for the whole block, yet the settlers are compelled to procure timber from Ngaruawahia and pr.y Ss to 12s per 100 feet for cartage. U.ving to the lack ol means of communication it is impossible to start the dairying industry for which the block was opened. In consequence of the high unimproved values the sum of £420 is due to the Raglan County Council for rates. Petitioners ask for the remission of rent for six months on first-class, and twelve months on second-class sections, and say that the granting of concessions will make all the difference between failure and success to a certain percentage of the settlers.

SUGAR BEET GROWING. The Sugar Beet Bill will probably > come before the Agricultural ana Stock Committee for consideration on J Friday next. Evidence will be given by j witnesses familiar with conditions in the Waikato, Wanganui, and Blenheim | districts, where it is considered beet would do best, I THE GAMING BILL. i The Gaming Amendment Bill is to be introduced to-morrow by the Prime Minister. A good deal of curiosity exists as to what the exact terms of the Bill will be, but in view of the opinion expressed by the House when the Prime Minister moved his series of resolutions in regard to the gamizig proposals, it is almost certain to provide for the repeal of the section in the old Act legalising bookmakers and a reduction in the number of racing days. TOBACCO ACT AMENDMENT. An amendment of the Tobacco Act is proposed. It provides that imported manufactured tobacco may be warehoused in a bonded tobacco factory, to be there cut up and packed, on condition that the packages (including labels) in which such tobacco when cut is put up for sale are, to the satisfaction of the collector, made in New Zealand.

THE "UNEARNED" INCREMENT. A sidelight was thrown upon the "unearned increment" .by Mr. Massey on Friday. He stated that some years ago the Government required some land in Auckland, which had not previously been built upon, for the purposes, of Government oll'ices, and paid £SOOO for it. The cry was raised of the '■unearned increment," and it was true that the land had originally been acquired cheaply. Mr. Bollard had, however, calculated what the sum originally paid for _it would have amounted at compound interest. He found this, together with the rates and taxes paid on that property, totalled no less than £17,000. EDUCATION BILL. A number of amendments have been made by the Education Committee in the Education Amendment Bill. The liability thrown upon Hospital ana Charitable Aid Boards in respect to blind, feeble-minded, deaf, and epileptic children, whose parents cannot defray the full cost of their maintenance ai special schools, is reduced from ten to eight shillings per week. The clauses relating to continuation classes are remodelled to read: "On the application of the School Committee, the Education j Board <mav, with the concurrence of the Minister, make regulations requiring the 1 attendance at continuation classes technical classes of young persons with-' in the school district who are not other-1 wise receiving a suitable education, 011 who are not specially exempted by the' regulations." If any person knowingly employs a young person at any time (other than ordinary hours of employment prescribed for such young person by any Act or award or industrial agreement) when his attendance is by any such regulation required at a con-; tin'uation or technical class, he shall be j liable to a fine. A -young person" mean* I a boy or girl above fourteen, but not over seventeen.