CAPE COLONY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 292, 3 September 1908, Page 7

CAPE COLONY.

'THE STRUGGLE AGAINST DEFICITS. PROPOSED LOANS. (M'TBLiaEAPS— rnsss association—coptbiqbt.) (Reo. September 2, 9.15 p.m.) i . - . Capetown, September 1. Tho Cape Colony Assembly has sanctioned the raising of loans amounting to £1,846,125, principally to cover deficits. DESPERATE EFFORTS TO MAKE ENDS ; . MEET. ■'v TJndsr, this despairing headline the Capetown correspondent of tho ' Daily Mail" writes, under, date July 1;—" Yesterday the Prime Minister; Mr. Merriroan, delivered his Budget statement, To-day the whole country is plunged into, a; gloom more profound than it has yet experienced, probably, in its financial history. Five successive Treasurers have: faced Parliament each with a gloomier tale than his predecessor.; •".Trade;:has' fallen oft enormously. Incomes have shrunk to half, the level of the war days. Business houses have'retrenched right and left. The .pruning knife has been applied to the Civil with a severity without precedent. > And still it is impossible to make both ends meet. "The disorganisation of the fliamond market has, involved an. almost complete cessation of aotivity at Kiratjerley. Tho markets for our produce—wool, mohair, ostrioh feathers—have enormously deolined, Our railways are piling up. heavy deficits every day, and most-of the branch lines are not even paying working expenses. During the, past four years our gross publio debt has increased by £13,000,000. "Mr. Merriman's proposals are drastic in tho extreme.; A capitation tax of ten shillings is to be v :imposed on incomes between .£SO and -£100; and ti similar tax of £1 on incomes from ..£IOO to; 4300. Above .£3OO incomes will pay a tax ofi.s per. cent., with a' .£3OO exemption. An estate duty-is expected to yield .£IOO,OOO, and other taxation consists of stamp duties on parent medicines, heavier trading licence fees, and a transfer duty of 4 per cent."