BRITAIN'S GREATEST BUDGET

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2575, 24 September 1915, Page 4

BRITAIN'S GREATEST BUDGET

The unprecedented burdens which the latest and greatest British Budget proposes to place on the shoulders of the taxpayers of the United Kingdom should serve to impress us with the colossal nature of the task which, lies ahead of the Motherland and the Empire. The unparalleled magnitude of the figures contained in the speeoh of the Chancellor of the Exchequer indicates the strain whioh the war is placing on Britain's financial resources, while the bold measures proposed to enable the Government to meet that strain may be taken to show that Ministers are confident that the people are alivo to their responsibilities, and ready to meet them. To us here in New Zealand who have so recently had under review pur own war Budget proposals the ■ oon'trast between the burdens that are being imposed on tho people of Britain a3 the - result of tho war and those which wo are to be called on to carry must afford ground for some heart-searchings. Hero we have _f or tho present escaped any special taxation on what may'bo deemed necessaries of life; there the people have been less fortunate—sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, and dried fruits all being taxed through tho Customs. Here war profits escaped special taxation; there they are to be heavily taxed. It would seem that the British Government propose to take practically one-half of all profits in excess of those ' of the previous year. Here the minimum inoome tax is to be Bd. in the £; there it is to be 2s. Id. in the £. Hero the _ income tax exempts all who have incomes under £300 a year; there it reaches out and embraces even the wage-earner struggling alopg on less than half that amount of income. It is well that we should know these things, in order that we may realise that whatever we are bein& called on to bear our kinsmen in Britain are still more heavily burdened. The annual cost of the British Army and Navy alone is set down by tho Chancellor of the Exchequer at over £900,000,000. a year, or <in round figures something like £20 per head of the population of Great Britain. Our.own total war expenditure for tho first year of the war was, we know, a little under £4,000,000, or about £4 per head of the population.' No doubt our expenditure will be greater this year, but nothing approaching that per head of the population of the Mother Country. Thus if there are any of us who may a't times feel the pressure of the increased taxes demanded of us by tho Finance Minister lot us bear in mind the much greater burdens the people of the Homeland arc carrying, and tho splendid spirit in which they aro facing the tremendous responsibilities thrust upon them by the war.