NEW ZEALAND: GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 25, 19 June 1902, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

The Austral Light grows in excellence with eaoh issue. The contents of the June number are varied and interesting, among the contributions being ' Origin of Man,' ' The Art of Singing,' ' Roman Tyranny, 1 ' Recent Polemics,' ' St. Patrick's Cathedral,' ' Catholics and Jews.' We have to thank Moßsrs Nimmo and Blair for their catalogue for the current penson. It is beautifully illustrated, and contains a great deal of information which will be fouud useful to profe3bional as well as amateur gardeners. According to Sir Joseph Ward since resuming control of the railways on Ist January, 1895, the Government has made concessions in passenger fares and on freight of articles of everyday use or of local production amounting approximately to £420,239. A return is published in the Gazette giving particulars of the occupations followed by 2857 Chinese residents in the Colony. From this it appears 1303 are engaged mining, 660 market gardeners, 258 storekeepers, greengrocers, and fruiterers, 95 ordinary laborers, and 86 laundrymen. The others are distributed among all kinds of occupations from billiardroom-keeper to missionary. Consequent on the ear3ier arrival of the express from the south at Christchurch after July 1, the Union Company's steamers for Wellington, which connect with the express, will leave about an hour earlier than at present, and passengers should, under favorable circumstances, arrive in Wellington between 9 and 10 o'clock the next morning. The revenue expenditure of our Colony (said the ActingPremier, addressing his constituents at Winton last week) for the year ending 31st March, 1902, iB of a most reassuring character. The total revenue for the year is £6,152,800. The balance from the preceding yeir was £532,500, making a total of £6,685,300. Of this amount £500,000 was transferred to the Public Works Fund. The expenditure for the year was £6,414,900. If you deduct that amount from the £6,685,300 you get the balance for the year of £270,400 ; and, considering that the remissions ia the Customs duties, the reductions upon the railway charges, and the introduction of the penny postage system have been made, as you know, by the Government, running into round figures reductions of £300,000 per annum, it cannot be regarded as cthtr than a wonderful result for the balance of £270,400 to have been the outcome of the year's operations. Speaking at Winton the other night the Acting-Premier said : ' During the seven years ending March 31, the Advances to Settlers Department shows what I can only call a magnificent result. On the 31st March last £3,074,000 had been advanced. The 1 per cent. sinking fund which had been retained by the Public Trustee has already produced £95,960. The net profit for the year amounted to £23.023, and there was a sum of £20,128 to credit on the 31st March, 1901, and with interest £719 thiß makes a total sum now to credit of the assurance fund, in round figures, of £43,900 ; and, further, although the office has been seven years in operation, it has not made a loss on any of its transactions, nor is there any overdue interest ; so that the stoutest of the opponents of the system cannot do other than say that the results achieved by it have been excellent.' On Thursday afternoon of last week Sir J. Ward was presented at Invercargill with an illuminated address by the people of Southland. The address bears the signature of the mayor of every borough in the provincial district and the chairman. of every publio body. After expressing the signatories' pleasure at the honor of knighthood having been conferred on Sir Joseph, and making eulogistic references to his efforts in respect to the Advances to Settlers Act, penny postage, the Pacific cable, and to the business acumen displayed by him as Minister of Railways, the address proceeds : 1 To enumerate all you have done for the Colcny as a whole, and for Southland in particular, is out of the question in an address of this nature. All we have been able to do is to touch briefly upon a few salient features of your public life, which has been marked by vigor, originality, and statesmanship, and which, we feel confident, haß still before it a long record of distinguished public service.' The presentation was made by Mr Longuet, the Mayor of Inveroargill.