THE BUDGET.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 451, 10 August 1850, Page 3

THE BUDGET.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer brought in his Budi>efc on Friday, March the lGth, and the following is an abridged account of his address on the occasion: — He had to nslc the indulgence of (he House while he addressed it on account of the slate of his health. However anxious the Government might be to make an early Budget, 8 ill it was impossible to do so with the 6ame accuracy with which it could be done tit a later period of the session. The accounts of the army and navy were not mad.» up till the end of April, and it was therefore impossible for him to make an estimate with perfect conectne^s. List year it was impossible for him to give an estimate at bo early a period, but this year circumstances were different and bo could make an estimate with greater confidence. Instead of a ng the reality, he had to lay before the House two i mates — one of the expenditure and income up to April, 1850, and the other the estimate of uicom-j and expenditure up to April, 1831. He had estimated the income for the year »p to April, at £32,262,0110, but it reached .£52, 783, 500. He had estimated the expenditure at £52,157,526 ; but hs was hr-pjiy to Say that he now estimated it at only £50,53.^,651, leaving a surplus indcpendant of excess of expenditure of two millions and a quaiter. (Cheers.) Wherever the Government could they had leduced the expenditure in eveiy uay in their power. With regard to the estimates for the next year, he was alraid he could not liope to encourage the House to cxi crt so favouiabie an estimate, as there was a considerable failhg oil in come items, and he did not expect such a huge quantity of sugar being imported a>, fioin March, 1 8 i 9 , to March 1850; there v\ns a loss on sugar to the t\« tent of £626,000 That was owing to the reduction which took place in the importation of fortign sugar. There was, however, an increase of colonial sugar, mid n falling off on foreign EUgitr. He also expected a falling off on the aiticle of brandy. The increased consumption of last year over 1848 was 577,00 gallons, at a duty of £433,000, which aiose, he believed, from the alarm which, pi evailed wh«:n the choleia laged in the country, but he d>d noi expect any inciea-e in the ensuing yeir. He r!i>o expected a dcneiue in the importation ot corn, for in February lust the importation of flour was on'y 14o,(j00 quatters, while in February, 1849, it was 577,000 quaiters; and nheie.is in l84f), corn and grain of all sorts impottcd was 950,786 quarters, it was in February last only 208,520 quarters. He estimated the income as folllons : — Excises £14 045,000, stamps, £6,860,000, assessed taxes, £4,320,000, customs, £20,000,000, income tax, £5,410,000. Post-uffice, £620,000, Crown Lands, £160, 000, miscellaneous, £860, 000, old stoics, £4lO,(J00, making a probable total of £52,215,000. The interest and management of the funded debt was £27,700,000 ; interest on Exchequer-bills, £405,000, making a total charge of £28,105,000. The other charges which were on the Consolidated Fund were £2,620,0!: 0 : navy estimates, £5 849,423; the packet eeivjce, £764,236 ; making <il ogcther for the navy, £6,613 650. The army estimates on the table were £6 019,349 ; the militia, £li 0,000; the commissariat, £50 ',000 ; making in all for the army, £6,629,340 ; the ordinance, £2,434,417— making the navy, army, and ordinance, £15,677,422. Excess of Gxpenditureonformerye.il', £i( 0,000; miscellaneous, £211,159, — making altogether an expemlituie ol ,£60,6 13,582. lie had, however, to inform the house that it was proposed to make a lar^e grant for the houses of Parliament, which giant and the grams of a similar kind, would reduce the suiplua to £1,500,000. He had been culled upon to reduce the duty on tea, to repeal the duly on malt and timber, and on windows, soap, paper, advertisements, and attorneys' cci tificales ; hue when he considered the amount of revenue derived from those articles, and that no special case had been made out to entitle them to exemption, he felt bound to refuse to comnly with the demand which had been mode upon him to repeal the duty. When he remembered that no less a sum than £148, 00,000 had, within the last few years, been invested in railways, he could not help thinking that that was a strong proof of the prosperity of the country. He believed that the policy which had been adopted recently, bad tended to conduce to that prospeiity, an 1 although from distiess in li eland and other causes, difficulties had been ex penenced during' the last fWur years, lie beiievcci that the fruits of that policy would very speedily be leahzed to the advantage of the country, lie admitted tlie price of corn had fallen lower than he had expected, but, at the same time, ii must not be forgot lh.it pro ■visions were cheap, and that operatives woe in full employment. 13ut this was not the only country in which coin was at alow piice, for he leund horn a document which had been presented by the Board of Agriculture to the President of the French Republic, that in that country also there weie complaints of the low price of corn, and that could not be attributed to any laige importation of corn in that country, but it aiose as it had done in this country from ths unusually abundant harvest of last year. He found also that in France, for the eight years previous to 1845, wheat was at 48s. per qu-iter. In Belgium for the seven years previous to 1845 it was 495., and at Amsterdam 48s. for the six yeais previous to 1845. He believed that by exertions on the k part of the Agiicultural interests they would not be injured by the admission of corn at a nominal duty. Any great change in any branch of industiy must necessarily displace capital for a time, but the pressure would only be temporary. It had been bo in consequence of the introduction of rail wa)s, and it was so to gome extent in agncultut c, i.i consequence of free trade. He had, as he had stated, a surplus of £1,500,0t0, and he thought that the first reduction they should make was a reduction of our debt. In the year 1833-4 they bouoived for the slaves £20,000,000 ,• in '41 to cover deficienceg, £5,000,00, Iv '47 for Ii eland, £8,000,0.0; and

ngiin when <'n increase on the income t,ix was refused' £2,u0J,000, making altogether £35,000,000 in a pciiod of profound peace; while during that peiiocl there had only been an excess of £8,000,000. leaving a d^bt of £27,000,000. It was in his opinion, their duty to reduce that debt as tourli as it iws possible, but could not do so if they always app'ied their suiplus to the reduction of taxation. They bad also to bear in mind that next ve?.r the house would have to consider the renewal of the income-tax, and he could not anticipate what mens minds might be on that subject. He thought it undesirable to exhaust thewlmluof the surplU3, but at the same time ho thought some reduction of taxition fchould take pLce, and he propo^ed^ to five «ome measuie of lehef (o the sinull owners of land. lie piopo^ed to reduce the stamp duty on the transfer of real property up to the. amount of £10' 0, and above that there should be an alteration, making the duty more equitable. He also proposed to reduce the duty on mortgages and bonds, and on leases, — the latter to a scale as near as could be to one-half per cent. In order as much as possible to contiibule to the comfort of the agiieultural labourer, he pioposcd a total repeal of the duty on bricks. The loss to the revenue would in consequence be on stamps, £300,000 to make further advances foi the purposes of diamage and improvement of the land ; and he believed by doing so it would encourage other parties to do so. The last advances, as far as England and Scotland weie concerned, were £2,000,000; and so readily had gentlemen on the other si'le of the Tweed availed themselves of it, that in consequence of pnoiity of application they obtained £l ,600,000 of it, while Enghnd had only got iT.<70,000. (Laughter). He now pioposed to advance £2,000,000 more, thiee -fourths of which be intended to give England, and on brides £450,000, making together i' 700,000. He the ic fore proposed to ap;ily the half of the surplus to the reduction of taxation, and the otlcr half to tlifl reduction of the national debt. But £700,000 would not be the whole of ihe reduction in the course of the year, for he was able to 6tate there would be a reduction in the duty on su^ar, which would make the total reduction £1,150,000. He was also aniions to give every encouiMgement to the improvement of the --oil, and he, therefore, proposed to do that which was done in IS4G, and to set them c qu<:ie with their neighbours, but if they did not apply foi it ihe applicants from Sctland would jjer it. lie proposed to give lo Ireland £1,000.000, £200 OCO of which was to be applied to the lxndj and .£BOO, O '0 to aiterial drainages. He hop^d to be able to make these advancts without making any addition whatever to the funded debt, if the house would leave buna buiplas to do so. He pioposed by the p-ynaent of a sum of £250,0'!0 out of the half of the surnlun in hand, to pxinguish the perpetu.il annuities, which would leave him £500,000, and that he thought the house should leave him as a rt serve fund, a3 it was indispensable to the srrvii c of the countiy. The R ght H, n. Gentleman concluded by inovin f r a vote of £9,200,000. The Right Hon. Gentleman sat down amidst loud Cheers.