WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 349, 4 October 1898, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(FHOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) THE P.W. STATEMENT. Premier Seddon was faithful to his written bond and the Public Works Statement and Estimates duly made their appearance on the 27th. This lelicitous departure from the ordinary run of Parliamentary expectations is a matter for congratulations to both parties. To the Seddonites because they have something to brag about, and to the Opposition for having taken the wise precaution to have the terms of the treaty set down in black and white. The title pace of the Statement bears the name of the Honourable W. Hall-Jones as the author ; the body of the document is redolent of Seddonian possibilities and ambiguities. • A Public Works Statement, even more than the Budget, is expected to disclose the policy of Ministers, but in this wordy affair vagueness and generalities take the place of straight-out declarations of fixed ideas. Between the lines there is ample evidence of a desire for a big loan ; the manner in which the available funds and the intended half million loan are to be disposed of this year also point to that, as will be seen later on. On the first page we fall across the following loose sentence as a sort of fish-hook to catch votes : " In railway construction alone the applications for new lines and the extension of existing lines comprise a length of over 1500 miles, at an estimated approximate cost of nearly 10 millions." This is certainly news. We know of the Otago Central and the North Island Main Trunk is always with us, and three millions would complete them if done on the old contract system, and perhaps another million would be required if co-operative workers did the job, but beyond them there is no demand to make up the balance of the alleged sum. The Midland Kailway is another affair. The colony has no business to spend a shilling on it until the legal position of the Government and the debenture-holders is settled. '.Even this is shirked by Ministers and a most misleading statement made concerning it, to the effect that "Until the legal position is defined by the courts nothing can be done to improve the position." As a matter of fact Ministers have blocked the way to the courts settling the matter themselves since the Receiver for the Midland Company took action. North Island members are divided in opinion as to the rival routes for the North Island trunk line. Ministers being in possession of information as to the merits and shortcomings of both might reasonably have been expected to give a lead on the subject, but after a roundabout excuse for the interminable delays in the construction of the Makohine viaduct, we get the following feebleminded exposition of policy : " After investigation as to the extent and capabilities of the land from a settlement point of view, it is reasonable to expect that a sound public opinion will be formed, and by a moderate give-and-take policy a safe conclusion as to the route which the line should follow will be arrived at." There has been investigation enough during the past twenty years this line has been on the stocks. For the Marton route it is claimed that it is the more direct, and would render accessible the best block of totara timber in the colony, valued in its forest condition at millions sterling. For the Stratford route it is urged that a great area of valuable settlement land would become accessible. Ministers have acres of evidence, but are afraid to come to a deci* sion. As to the finance of the Budget, it is simplicity itself. It spells as plainly as A.B.C. a big loan to go to the elections with next year. The operations of last year were as follows : There was a balance to start with of £282,363, and this was supplemented by remoring the ear-marks from the money borrowed for lands improvement account and native lands purchases by a clause smuggled into the Appropriation Act on the last day of the session of 1897. This gave Ministers a further sum of £356,796 with which to purchase popularity. To this was also added £250,000 of further loan money and £300,000 from the Consolidated Fund and £2,876 of miscellaneous receipts. This gave a total of £1,192,035 available for the year. The expenditure was £865,543 and the appropriations were £1,007,962, so that there were unexpended votes amounting to £142,417. This sum representing works urgently needed in districts not favoured by Ministers went to swell the surplus. In addition to what was spent, however, there were liabilities on works in progress on March 31st amounting to £394,427, against which there were funds in the account of £326,492, so that the department had really overrun the constable by £68,000. It is proposed to spend this year—six months of it having ing already passed public works and £50,000 on what is called " Loans to local bodies account," but which is nothing of the kind. The destination of it is shown on pages 50 to 53 of the Estimates as 11 Roads, bridges, etc., to open up Crown lands." It will bo spent as the Minister of Lands chooses, and no local body will have a voice in the matter. . To raise the funds for this £1,127,640, there is, first, the balance of £326,492, which is shown to be more than absorbed in liabilities. The Consolidated Fund (otherwise taxes) will provide £425,000, of which the sums of £25,000 each are to be ear-marked for Lunatic Asylums, Defence and Parliament buildings. Sinking Funds will supply £36,500, and the British money-lenders' purse will be appealed to for a round half million. This makes a total of £1,287,992 to meet the proposed expenditure of £1,127,640, and the Minister claims that at the eud of the financial year there will be £210,352 remaining in the Public Works Fund. There will be also something he does not say—the liabilities on works then in progress, probably about the same as la3t year, £394,000. And this means that when Parliament meets next year there will be an empty Public Works cash box and a loan required to carry on with. The average expenditure on roads and bridges varies very little month by month. Half the year is passed and Parliament is asked to authorise expenditure on works, half of which are completed. This is not as it should be. There are many works carried out by the State which would not be consented to were the House fully aware of the nature of them. This is more particularly the case in that sink for expenditure, the Westland County, the Bpoilt child of the colony. If there were a fair division of our revenue on a population basis, Westland would cease to exist in a week. For instance : There is no land fit for settlement in that mountainous region, the population is only 8658 all told, and 4000 of them are town residents. Yet, out of the vote for settlement, roads and bridges, counting the money expended and the liabilities, Mr Seddon's constituents received £15.322 out of a total of £466,412. Taking the census of 1896—the population of the colony was 754,016, and of Westland 8658, the latter received £1 15s 4d per head, and the people of the colony as a whole, 12t) 4d, and it is no exaggeration to say that not a single settler extra has been added to the population of Westland. If we take the roads constructed by public works off goldfields the disproportion i 3 much greater. Altogether £93,145 was expended by the Public Works Department on this item last yeur. This is at the rate of 2s Od per head of the population. Mr Seddon's constituents benefited to the extent of £12,384, of this equal to £1 8s 8d per head, and when we come to the vote development of goldfield we find that of the sum spent in water-races £3695, Westland took the lot, also £1240 out of a total for prospecting and nothing has resulted.

Special sums are voted for drainage tunnels, etc., which no other community has an opportunity of getting. We find the Hokitika wharf, a rotten structure, which no shipping has visited for ;i year, has had £450 spent on it, and £l7lO mote is asked for. There is no end to the benevolences showered on WVsUaud. Yet Parliament, as represented by tbe majority, sits and sleeps and votes, neither knowing nor caring about this increasing plunder of the rest of the colony to keep Premier Seddon sweet with his West Coast friends.