MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 16 July 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

♦— The Wellington correspondent of the Chris'churcb Press says ;— " The aIN absorbing topic of discussion in the lobbies just now is the retrenchment question in its many-sided aspects. It being now recognised on all sides that large reduc* fc ; ons are imperative, and the' subject thus j bping taken out of mere party politics, nearly every member is eager that his own scheme of economy should be tried. At least a dozen different suggestions bare been made, and at present it is not easy to spo what will be the ultimate solution of the great retrenchment problem. There is no doubt that Mr Eeader Wood's proposal (1) that the annual estimates of expenditure should be considerab'y reduced. 2. A reduction of twenty per cent, on all salaries of £600, per annum and upwards ; a re-lui.'tion of fifteen per cent, on salaries between £300 and £600, and ten pfr cent, on salaries between £180 and £300, these reductions not to apply to the wages elas3, 3. The office of Agent.» General to le abolished. 4. Various items of addi« tional salary upon the estimates be not voted. 5 Salaries of the Chairmen of Select Committees be not voted, 6. The publication of " Hansard " be dispensed with. 7. The honorarium ot Members of House of Representatives be reduced 21 per cent, end of members of the Legislative Council 50 per cent. 8, The number of District Court Judges and R.M.s be reduced. 9. Large redactions in the stuff of efficers in various depart* ments by the amalgamation of offices and reorganisation. 10. Telegraph and postal stations which do not pay working expenses to be dispensed with. 11. Cost of defence and vo'unteers to be reduced by £50,000. I hear that this meets the general views of the 3overnment and that they intend to carry out the principle in spirit, if not in letter, by adopting some such basis of reduction. It is strongly nrged by some members that the remodelled estimates should show the reductions on their face without making allowance for compensation, that to be done in special supplementary estimates, so as to have a definite basis on which to ground next year's estimates. There is much difference of opinion about the reductions in the Legislative class, both as to the amount and the plan on which they should be based. It is be* lieved a majority of the members of the Upper House are willing to reduce their honorarium by 50 per cent, and those in the Representative Chamber by 25 per cent, but there is a strong and growing feeling outside, which some members share, that the reduction in the honorarium should be one just doable that scale, reducing that of the Lower House by one«half and abolishing the hono* Tarium to the Upper Honse altogether, I understand that included in the £170,000 or £200,000 per annum by which Government are willing to reduce the expenditure is £32,000 upon edaca* tion. The railway expenditure will also be considerably curtailed, and the capita* tion allowance to all Volunteers, except in the Waikato, on the East Coast, and in Taranaki, be abolished at the end of six months. It is proposed to make re« d actions to the extent of 10 pc/ cent, on all salaries. Messages at all telegraph stations in the country districts which do not pay will be charged at the rate of Is 6d per ten words, instead of Is, as at present, and no lines will be erected unless guaranteed, and old guarantees will also be enforced. The Agent General's department will not be interfered with until the report of the | Public Accounts Committee is received. Considerable redactions will be made in the number of magistrates in the colony. Sach, at least, are understood to be the ideas of the Ministry on the subject. How refreshing it is to read that the late Duke of Portland — peace to his ashes !— used to expend £1300 per annum on newspap3rs ! This shows the aaaaing amount of enlightenment that attains in Fngland at present amongst the nobility. What a lesson this great man's life affords to our niggardly colonial leveldom, many of whom be* grudge the trifling subscriptions to a local newspapers. What strides are being made at Home. At the nineteenth annual meeting of subscribers to the London home for lost and gtarving dogs, it was reported that during the past year the institution had found homes for upwards of 5280 dogs, being 598 more than in the previous year. Twentysfour new compartments had recently been made at the home for additional accommodation, and other ereciions had been completed at the cost altogether of about £800. Under the beading* The cost of an Empire' the Home News says;— 'An interesting return, just published, gives a comprehensive view of tbe financial position of the colonies and dependencies which make up the mighty aggregate of the British I'mpire, Their united revenue . and expenditure considerably exceed those of the Mother country. In 1878 these revenues amounted to £92, 889,015, the expenditure to £92,961,585. The excess of expenditure over income was— in tbe case of India, three milt lions and a half; in our Australian colonies, a little -over one million ; in our north American, £1,700,000. JOqp

smaller settlements managed to make both ends meet, and maintained the balance as well. The total debl : of the Colonies for the year 1878 was £220 Mfl. 987-one third of the Br tish National 'Debt, while the ' entire debt of <he British in all ports of the world reaches the tremendous sum of more than one thousand m.lhons of nonnis." ■■

A deputation of goldfields members k waited on the Premier yesterday, to \urge the necessity of graater Minis* 'terial attention being devoted to goMfields matters and to the gold mining industry general'y. The Premier, in reply, admitted that th se affairs had not hitherto received quite their fair share of attention, but explained that Vjfc had been intended to appoint an member, but in the present position of the colony, however, that was out of the question. It was now proposed to make a re-arrangem-nt of "portfolios at the end of the s ssion, so that the Min : ster who might hold the portfolio of mines might be able to de* J vote more time and attention to to the subject than -hitherto had been possible, and Government would do their utmost to carry out the views of the deputation. The uumber of different kinds o f postage strmps which have been hither* v to isued alt over the world is estimated in round numbers at 6,000. Among them are to be found the effigies of five emperors, eighteen kings, three queens, one grand number one grand duke, six princes, one princess, and a great number of presidents, &c, Some of the stamps + bear coats of arms and other emblems, as crowns, the papal keys, and tiara, anchors, eagles, lions, horses, stars, serpents, railway trains, horsemen, messengers, &c. The collection pre* served .in the Museum of the Berlin Post offices included, on July 1, 1879, 4.491 specimens of different pontage stamps. Of these, 2,462 were from 441 from Asia, 251 . from Africe, 1,143 from America and 201 . from Australia. The glass sleepers to which we reil|erred some time ago as undergoing a trial on one of the Metropolitan tramway lines (says the London Echo) have proved so useful that it is proposed to. make the rails of Siemeh's sleeper in one, to overcome the * principal difficulty of the tramway company.