GONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 18 April 1899, Page 2

GONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

London. la the House of Commons Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered his Budget Speech. la the course of its deliverance the Chancellor of Ih3 Exchequer said the pi3fc year's revenue had exceeded the expenditure by £188, OUO. Proceeding, Sir Michael HicksBeaoh declared that ho proposed to reduce the annua! charge on the national debt by two millions, hence in th° current year he wjuld rtquire £110,927,000, which wa* £640,000 in excess of the estimated revenue. The balance he proposed to provide by a n*w stamp dmy of five shillings pjr hundred piund on f >mgn and colonial bonds, stock-! and shares, when rmrtgaga dmy of half a crown per hunddrd pounds on loan capital i and deb^ntiuv.s under th 3 statute. He also proposed to mike an increase in tha import duty 611 wine 3 Concluding h'n speech, the Chancellor of thd Exuh qire said the total euinnt^d increase tcota these sources was £870.003. He also propsst-d not only to { inci'easa j lint stock companies' cipital dmy from half a crown to (ivo shillings per hundred pounds, bat he would imposed a duty of six p n3J on letters of allotment. Th renunciation of three shilling* p?igallon on still wine imported in bo'tle would hi mid a , but an -p-xtra sixp>nce per gallon duty on othe wiuss, including colonial, wjuld b ■ impound. Sir M. Hicks-Baach also showed that the Vrilue of the Suez Cana Bhafe3 held by the British Government had during the two yearn increased by four million^, again?? t an expenditure of one million in the Soudan War. In reply to a question in th^ Hou3e of Ciramonq tc-day, the Right Hon W. St John Brodriok. Uader-Sjcrefcary for Foreign Affiir. I',1 ', stated (hat Great Britain was not proposing to guarantee the independence of Tonga,