WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 244, 5 February 1898, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[from our own correspondent]. Welun'oton', January 30. THK GOVERNMKNT GAZETTKL For some reason or other this interesting weekly perio.lioil is spurned by most people, probab'y from prejudice, yet if they devoted a little more attention to it there is a deal of really entertaining and instructive matter, and f jy one thing it is entirely free from any attempt at wit or humour. It is presu ned to be as absolutely correct as the Scriptures. Indeed, to the conscientious Civil servant it is as free from error as the Bible itself. True, its issue of the 20th inst. had a paragraph headed ' Errala,' correcting five mistakes in the previous number, all committed by the Lands Department. These will probably cuise some los3 and inconvenience to the per sons affected, and mistakes in the Gazslto arc quite a novelty. The absence of the Minister at his family seat at Rushy Park prevented his personal scrutiny, and as Civil servant*, even in the Lands Departments, are only human, allowances must be made for the consequences of holiday-making. This week's issue is full of choice things. Owing to circumstances which arc well understood, all tho Ministers have been absent except the Hon. Walker. He has only flashed like a meteor backwards and forwards to Canterbury, and in a fi ful so-t of w.iy held the fort at Wellington for all his colleagues. So we find in the Gazette numbers of new bil.ets created and a coupe of good Liberals elevated to J.P. ships, all of which are signed by W C. Walker, who is for the nonea acting PostmasterGeneral, Minister of Justice, Education, Railways, Marine, Labour, and Colonial Secretary into the bargain. Tnis Walker is not counted, even by his dearest friends, to be a strong man, and it is to be hoped that the strain of signing his name to such a variety of dispensations will not unhinge his mind or undermine his constitution. However, the merj fact that Walker can run the colony single-handed and only work half-time fur five weeks implies that tho scitticc of Government is not a laborious occupation when all the Minister's arc on the job, and it rather discounts Dr. Seddoa's desireVoc an extra Minister. One of them, however, appears to keep the patronage of his own department in his own hands. The Hon. Jock's name appears to the reappointment of Mr Stevens, M.H.R., to the Wellington Land Board. That faithful member stood by Jock over the Horowhuiua atrocity and barracked for him as no other Liberal did, and the Scotch proverb of " You scratch me and I'll scratch you " was applied to the mutual satisfaction of these two worthies. A page or two further on there is a notification that the Royal Commission now enquiring into the kauri gum industry has had its time extended. Th'-y are convenient tribunals are Royal Commissions as constructed in these progressive days. The enthely unnecessary one of last year on Benefit Societies certainly bad the merit of finding pocket money for a couple of pjssiblc wobblers from the Seddon leg'on and the head of the Labour Bureau, who spends his time in conjugating Fijian verbs and writing socialistic rant for the Labour Journal, buiog perhaps the most innocent person in the colony as to actual labour. Then the Emerson " commission " and its inconsequential finding is a source of ridicule even to the Ministerial press. And now wc have the Police Commission with two magistrates whose well being is dependent en Ministerial smile*, the third being Col. Albert Pitt, of Nelson, a very worthy lawyer who had his outiug to the Jubilee, had £SO out of the Premier's £1750, and who ins been frequently tipped.for the Attorney-General-ship with the right of appointing If niself Chief Justice in due course. What the order of reference for this commission is has not been yet made public, but it may be taken for granted that the chief culprits in the matter will escape. This is evident from the uuwillingness of Messrs Thompson and Seddon to appear as witnesses in the Mdls libel case. They both sheltered themselves bchiud privilege rather than be raked with a broadside of cross questioning Ly Sir Robert Stout as to their use of power. The finding of this specially select trio of commissions is easy to forecast : " The Commission cih, after careful enquiry and a perusal of departmental correspondence, which in the inteict-t3 of the service they deemed it advisable to keep from the press and public, beg to report that certa:n irregularities have occurred, but that a mat ked change for the better is evident since the new Commissioner took charge. . We have found nothing to implicate Ministers in usiug any undue influences, but we desiro to say that the removal of the late administrative head is advisable. Wo have the honour to enclose our vouchers for expeuses—total £675 10s Od, and remain your obidient, etc." Next in interest is a unification of a reduction in railway fares on the Wel-lington-Napier New Plymouth lines and the intermediate stations including Pa'merstcn. This ought to be a popular move. Anything that saves money is, and such a reduction forms a splendid text for Mr Seddon at banquets to enlarge upon when he takes up the subject of railways and how his good Government " gave them back to the people " and made such liberal concessions. The fly in the oin'ment here is that the obj'Ct is more poetical than patriotic being intended to collar the trade of the Manawatn Company by carrying goods and passengers at i loss, and miking the loss up by overcharging people in other districts. It may lie Statesmanship in a Liberal sense ; sneh a thing might be defended were the rival lines both private ones ; but for a Government to start cutthroat competi ion against a line owned by people, it governs is a direct flaunting of the saying of an American Statesnnn that " Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities." This view could not be driven into our administrators with any I ghter argument than a piledriver. THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. In this same issue of the Ga7.ette wc get the Treasury statement to the end of December. Wc lad that of Orcat Britain and those of the other cd./nies cabled on January 3rd, and we have to wait for our own until the 27th. Summed up in a sentence, they ill >w that the spoils to the victors' policy has expanded to such diopjical proportions that tha colony can't stand the strain much longer. To show the growth of departmental expenditure, the following figures for thy December quarters of the past four years are enough t-J make any fober minded man stand aghart : Quarter ending Dee. 31st, 1894, £319,950 Quarter ending IXu. 31,t. 1595, £538,418 Quarter ending Dec. 31st. 189(3, i'607,78.'; Quarter ending Dec. :H*t. 1897, £664,101 An increase of £141,214 in salaries and tunporaiy clerks mostly. Taking particular departments the Colonial Treasurer ap| cars to have bcrn sowing a go?d many wi'd oats during the 1 ttertudof the year. Taking the past four years his office Ins increased <.s follows : £5-86, £705)1, £21,251 The appropria tioii for the who'e year is only £24,729, altogether for tliii department, so that without some explanation it i 3 impassible to guess what this sudden inflation means, In other departments under Mr Scddon'fl control, the accounts show the followiug advance! for the same period : —Labour, £674, £3391, £1207, £2002. The large expenditure in 1895 was during th* patiod when the Levin State Farm wa3 in its glory.. It is under a cloud since the dairy experiment with a mob of steers purchased by the Chief Secretary failed. As Ministe • for Agriculture, the Hon. Jock still finds room for more experts, mostly cat< which catch no mice, and their quarter's Salaries increased from £12,4f0 last yea-

to £15,649 tliis year ; and us Minister of Lands from £26,503 to £29 528. There la* evidently been some hitch in the railway accounts as there was six ironths ago, for the expenditure shows a jump from £l7l 7U to £249,796. Both this on J the Lands and Purvey Office provide their own ainlitois, which is a most unsatisfactory 6titc of thing*. For all this the people cautinue to pay more and more every year through the customs. Here are the amounts for the past quarterly periods: 1895. £412,308; 1890, £480,241 ; 1597, £48"),957 This is at the rate of £1,949,000 a year for a population of 720,003 souls. Victoria, the most protected of the colonies, witli a population of 1,174,855, collected £1,759,350 last year. New Zealand, with less people by 450,000, raises £IOO.OIjO more revenue through the Custom House, and we arc to have Old Age Pcns : ons so as to squec ze us still further.