THE GOVERNMENT’S IDEAS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3614, 29 August 1912, Page 5

THE GOVERNMENT’S IDEAS.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. [PEE PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Aug. 28. In the House this afternoon Ministers. in answer to questions, said that a. Bill providing for the accommodation of flax-mill employees would bo introduced shortly. An amending Act is being prepared in which further safeguards will be provided to prevent speculation in lands dealt with under tlie Land Settlement Finance Act. The High Commissioner had issued a notice in July suspending the export of cattle, sheep, and pigs to the Dominion from the United Kingdom until further notice. The owners of the Kaiwaka estate, through which the East Coast trunk railway will run, are being communicated with with a view to purchase. It is not considered advisable to extend the functions of the State Guaranteed Advances Office by empowering it to prepare transfers as well as mortgages. The power of a court martial will be definitely set forth in the Defence Amendment Bill now being prepared. The suggestion of sending a New Zealand regimental band to Britain in order to advertise the Dominion is worthy of consideration, but action might advantageously be postponed for some groat Imperial event. The Government may have to take into consideration the advisability of allowing private capital to construct branch railways where the Government, through shortness of funds, is unable to do so.

It is not proposed t-o alter the system of payment of old age pensions. Tlie remainder of the sitting Avas occupied in discussing the answers to ■questions.