EVENING SITTING.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2981, 4 September 1878, Page 2

EVENING SITTING.

' ■' ' ".! ' ''J : ■'',','.', ! Tuesday, i : The House resumed at 7,30 tp-ni|ht (»n the Land Tax Bill. ::/ ! j ;

Mr t Thomson' continue^ hii s sjpeecb. He said he thought the beer tax, jroMld yield 'a much, larger sum,than, was jiut down by t!tie Treasarer. He would sug- 1 gest to the Treasurer; the advisability of adopting the registerHwachiae in.-g^nwral us* in the American States, which Was an excellent check upon the barman and the quantity of bier or liquor sold,—and. if they charged as in tjie United States, the Treasurer might easily raise a rereniie of oiie hundred thousand pouncls annually. Coming back to the. land tax, he pointed! out that many districts not only did not! benefit by the land tax, but were ser,l-j ously injuried by those works. A fain thing to do would be to lay the (Jolony out* into railway/ districtii, and■''lefc(e r£ery r <|is-{ trick 'nWintaip^'to) \ railway' pacing) through, it; fiy : niaking up any Sencujhtiy \ in! Working. 1 He 1 W6uld! .su^po'rf^lhe" second reaairigV but would eadavo^ur to_ make amendments in committee. .2L«vj£r', v! tp f (examije ,m/nnanc:ialarid\pitli9/wpr% j statementp, 'out would first' say' a tew' worda on tie public accounts of the colony. Lai it session the Eremier ancUl^s, supportefs c6ntinudUy Aride; the public accounts,'is' if J there had been gross Qorrjjp^ioiTffi .keeping.,them, and though refuted at tue" tim^, by dint of .reiteration ( . a. feeing, gat -^br^ad, th^t something very wrong had been gqJDg on, -a. ml. it had b^en said „thal| when "the presipnt Grovernmqn^ iriastered all thie derails they would discover what would prevent any of the. late.Ministry ever r jtakiqg office , again. , What... happened sincd'? Why, the present Treasurer accepted all the figures and statemenfls regarding a surplus and loans that had been set down by his predecessors. This explanation was due to the late Government. The Premier last yearf when accepting the estimates of. the previdub J Government said he disapprored ,qi theni, and intended to greatly r reduce ithem), and he could save a hundred thousand i easily. The hca. gentleman then quotgl fiom estimates to show that there was no such absolute saving affected as had been proposed by the Premier lastyeat. Taking the figures of the, late .Government and admitting that the, present Govern* raent were anim'atfed by every desire td economise in departmental expenditure} what a testimony it was to the care of the late government, that, the present one spent seven thousand more than the late Government.; The Treasurer found that,' instead of satin;? one hundred thousand! pounds, there had been an .excess of ! penditure of seven thousand pounds, and this year they asked for fifteen thousand ! more, than had been asked by the la'e Government, and they intended increasing it by fifteen thousand.. Ho would point out that a sum of seventy-three thousand pounds of baiance of loan was carried toi public revenue. There was nothing that! Sir George Grey denounced so muohas 1 carrying from loans to ordinary revenue. He did not object to this, and only pointed it out to show that the late Government were not so wicked as they were made out. He congratulated the Government on the successful floating of the loan, but the whole credit of it was due to Sir J. Vogel. He held that Government had not afcted rightly in sending Mr Larna^h home, as there was no excuse for it, especially after the outcry made when Sir J. Yogel went home.