Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1896.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2128, 23 October 1896, Page 2

Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1896.

After a seesion extending over four months, the business of Parliament was concluded on the 19th inst., and the dissolution is expected to take place early in November, when the writs for the General Election will be forthwith issued. We need hardly press upon the attention of our readers the obligation which all citizens are under of seeing that their names are on the electoral roll, to that they may have a voice in detet mining the grave issues which will be before the country. The past session, the third of the twelfth Parliament of New Zealand, has been notable especially for the lengthy investigation by the Committees of both Houses into the affairs of the Bank of New Zealand and the causes which led to the banking legislation of 1893, 1894 and 1895. The proceedings of these Committees and their utterly futile results, are now matters of history. It was clear, from the first, that the Government did not intend that the whole truth should come out ; and the respective reports were little more than evasions of the points really at issue. ' The country is as much in the dark as ever as to the real reasons which induced the Cabinet to come the rescue of the Bank and commit the colony to contingent liabilities not far short in the whole of three three millions of money. The purchase of the Colonial Bank and the arrangements therewith remain as much a mystery as ever —a mystery, however, which is now likely to be elucidated in the Supreme Court, since the bank is in course of liquidation under "The Companies Act, 1882." The Bill brought in at the eleventh hour to give effect to the recommendation of the Committee appointed by the House had to be abandoned owing to the insiatance of the Legislative Council on an amendment which would have enabled that institution to have been liquidated under the deed of settlement, and so avoided publicity. The suspicion, under all circumstances, can hardly be avoided that Ministers were privy to the pressing of the amendment; since, in both Committees, they successfully exerted their influence to the utmost to prevent any information being disclosed as to the connection of the late Colonial Treasurer and the J. G. Ward Farmer's Association with the Colonial Bank. The Premier has announced his intention of re-introducing the Bill next session, so that the new Parliament will have its turn at this wearisome and incomprehensible banking business. The opinion is gaining ground amongst competent judges that it had been better for the country to have left the institution to its natural fate. A very large proportion of the Public Bills introduced, including many Government policy measures, were either dropped, rejected or abandoned, only 82 having passed out of a total of 177. Ministers succeeded, however, in obtaining authority to raise £1,©00,000 in aid of certain public works, and also in aid of opening up Crown lands, acquiring Native lands and otherwise promoting settlement. This is an open reversal of the non-borrowing policy, which they have so ostentatiously vaunted, although they honored it " more in the breach than the observance," having added more than fiVe millions to the public debt since the advent <?f Mr Ballance to office in 1891. As the permanent charge for interest and sinking fund for the year ended March 31st last amounted to £1,683,W5, out of a total revenue £4.783,740, f>e consideration is a very serious one ; but nevertheless the question is an open one whether it might not be most economical in the end to ra'se a public works loan of sufficient amount to complete the more important lines of railway under construction; the large sums of money alreadv expended on which are at present yielding no returns, whilst large tracts of the iuterior remain cut off from railway communication with ports and markets, and are consequently barred to agricultural settlement. We should not be surprised if Mr Seddon plays this card at the elections, and we are disposed to think that the million now aathorised is intended to give a taste for free expenditure, which will require a few more millions to satisfy. Ministers decidedly have the immediate advantage of the disposal of large sums at a critical political juncture, and they well understand how to work this to the bt-st account. In addition to " The Aid to Public Works and Land Settlement Act." the principal measures of the Session are, fcheChiuese Tm-mi'-rapts Act which imposes a poll tax of £IOO on Celestials; the Electoral Act Amendment Act, which abolishes the freehold qualification : the Government Advances to Settlers Act Amendment, being an extension of the operations of the principal Act the Government Valuation of Land Act! providing for the valuation by Government officers of .all landed property ; the Land for Settlement Act Amendment Act, which offers special facilities for supplying

———■ Xr home* for workmen ia the vicinw of larger towns; the Bating on Unimproved Value Act, * permissive measure, under which boroughs and counties may rate on the unimproved value of land ; the Shop and Shop Assistants Act Amendment Act, which bring* hawkers nod other persons not carrying on hufi(u»a in shops, under the definition of shopkeepers or shop assistant*; the Law Practitioner* and New Zealand Law Society's Aet Amendment Act, which admits women to the practice of the profession. It ia notable that nearly all the Labor Bills vent" by the board," and (here wai evidently a general feeling in both branches of the Legislature thai were has been enough of thi* legislation for toe time at least.