BRITISH POLITICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 832, 28 April 1910, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

London, April 26

In the House of Commons some interesting divisions have taken place. On a Government motion to suspend the : 1 o'clock rule in favour of the Development Act Amendment Bill, the voting was as under ; —For the motion, 204 ; against the motion, 182 ; Government majority, 22.

The smallness of the Government's majority was the signal for loud Opposition cheers.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Lloyd-George, stated that the first amendment of the Old Age Pensions Act would be the removal ot the pauper disqualification.

[To qualify at present for the British old age pension (maximum 5s per week, age limit 70) an applicant must not be in receipt of poor relief or have received poor relief since January 1, 1908.]

Mr Wm. O’Brien, Leader of the Independent Irish Nationalists, moved the rejection of the Budget. This was negatived, the voting being: Against the motion, 32S ; for the motion, 242 ; Government majority, 86. The announcement of the numbers was received with Opposition cheers.

The Budget was then read a second time, the second reading being carried by the same majority.

Mr Austen Chamberlain characterised the Government’s finances as confiscatory and menacing. He emphasised the lowness of Consols, which yesterday were quoted at ,£BO 15s. He also mentioned the unprecedented fact that on the recent issue of Exchequer bonds the lists were closed early because the applications were few and were being withdrawn. Had the lists remained open the required money would not have been obtained.

Arguing that the Government’s taxation was vindictive, Mr Chamberlain mentioned that a well-conducted brewery had been taxed an additional ,£40,000 under Mr Lloyd-George’s Budget, or ,£12,000 more than it distributed among its ordinary shareholders. Mr O’Brien cited the report of the Royal Commission on the financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland to prove that Ireland had been seriously overtaxed. He declared that Mr Redmond’s surrender to the Government (involved in the Redmondite Nationalists’ voting for the Budget) was an act of apostacy for which Ireland would get nothing in return.

Mr J, J. Clancy (Redmondite Nationalist member for Dublin County, North) said that the Nationalists would vote for the Budget on the ground that, apart from their merits or demerits, as the yield of Mr Lloyd-George’s land lax and other taxes increased, so Ireland's taxation would fall.

Mr Balfour, Leader of the Opposition, denounced the Budget as dealing arbitrarily and unequally with persons of equal wealth. It is expected that the Government’s Bill dealing with the House of Lords veto —which is to be called the Parliament Bill—will be available to-morrow.