BRITISH BUDGET.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1092, 3 April 1911, Page 5

BRITISH BUDGET.

PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. SALARIES OF £400 PER ANNUM TO BE ALLOTTED. AN ENORMOUS REVENUE. By Telegraph-Press AssociaUon-Copyrieht (Rec. April 3, 0.15 a.m.) London, April 1. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd-George, in his Budget statement, announces a net surplus for the year of •E5,606,76G. The principal items on the revenue side compare as under with figures for the previous financial year:— 1910. . 1911. £ £ Total revenue ... 131,697,000 203,850,588 Customs revenue 30,348,000 33,104,000 Excise 31,032,000 40,020,000 Stamps 8,079,000 9,784,000 Property, and income tax 13,295,000 61,946,000 The Budget provides for the payment to members of the House of Commons of salaries of .£4OO a year. LABOUR PARTY FINANCE, lAW IGNORED, NOT DEFIED. (Rec. April 2, 5.5 p.m.) v London, April 1. Tho Labour party's methods of financing its electioneering campaigns and paying members' salaries since the Osborne judgment was tho subject of an interesting question in Parliament. In December, 1910, it will be remembered, tho House , cf Lords ruled in the case of Osborne v. the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants 'hat trades, unions could not make compulsory levies on their members for political purposes. Sines then injunctions have been obtained against many unions. In the House of Commons Mr. Claude Lowther, Unionist member for Eskdale (Cumberland) has asked whether the trades unions had financed the party members of the Labour party elected to tho House at the recent election, despite the Osborne judgment. Mr. Asquith, in replying to the question, declined to mako a definite statement. . . Mr. Eamsay Mac Donald, leader of the Labour party, on being interviewed regarding Mr. Lowther's question, said it was generally true that the Labour party had been financed by tho unions. They wero not breaking the law, but simply ignoring it. Where no injunction had been placed on trades unions they would continue doing as before tho judgment was delivered. They declined to recognise a state of things which.was admitted to be unfair, and which was about to be removed. Tho Labour party was holding the fort while tho House of Commons considered the remedy to be applied.