Economies on the Estimates:
The New High Commissioner for London: Why the Export Trade Suffers: Constitutional Issues in Queensland: Railway Unification: Spread of Bubonic Plague Melbourne, Nov. 17.
There seems every possibility now that the Commonwealth Government will survive the present session, and carry on at least until the beginning of the second half of next year. As the general elections are due during November or December it may be considered certain that when an_ appeal is made to the country Mr. Hughes will still be Prime Minister, after seven years continuous occupancy of that position.
The last attack on the score of economy gave Mr. Hughes food for thought. It was not long before he assured the House that he had personally gone into the Estimates anc that he would be able to save ut least £500,000. Nor is there anything remarkable about this. The late Treasurer, Sir Joseph Cook, made no secret of the fact that he did not expect to spend the whole of the money he was asking for, and Mr. Watt, an ex-Treasurer, gently chided Sir Joseph for his failure to so arrange his figures as to show that no deficit on the year's tran3- actions was anticipated.
It has now transpired that at least £250,000 of the saving will be in connexion with new defence works and buildings, and a reduction of the hours continuous training of the citizen forces. When, however, new postal works were discussed there was a general complaint that the expenditure yeas too small, and that the outlay should be more liberal. But Parliament has some way to travel before the full Estimates are finally dealt with, though the discussions since the censure motion was defeated amply illustrate the fact that the assailants of the Government were by no means of one opinion the directions in which economy should be exercised.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.