IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 30

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

i*. THE BUDGET LONDON, August 3. Many Opposition speakers are complaining of the violence of Mr Lloyd- George's speech at Liraehouse. Mr W. H. Long, addressing 20.000 unionists at Christchurch, said that Mr Lloyd-George was attempting to destroy the great landed and propertied classes. The Liberals, he added, could no longer pretend that their policy is guided only by financial considerations. August 4. The Duka of Portland, addressing his tenants at Welbeck, said that thousands of pounds -were spent weekly in wages on the estate.. This, necessarily, would/ be laTgely diminished if the Budget became law, thus disorganising the local labour market. Taxation upon capital was fundamentally unsound, and such finance would bring ruin to agriculturists. The chairman of Watney's Brewery Company, at the annual meeting, stated that the increased license duties would cause the company to pay £100,000 additional taxation. August 6. In replying to Mr Lloyd -George?s Limehouse speech, giving instances of land-owners' selfishness, which were strongly contradicted in the specific cases mentioned, the Duke of Westminster, in reply to several correspondents urging him to prosecute Mr Lloyd-George fop making misstatements, declares that, considering the Chancellor's personal idiosyncrasies, his best defence is to trust in tke fairness and sense of decency still inherent in the community. August 8. The Government has announced several technical amendments in the Finance Bill proposals affecting land. August 9. Mr Winston Churchill, speaking at Saltburn, said the Budget was winning its way because the House of Lords was nofc entitled to touch questions affecting public money, and, secondly, because the Govern-, ment was in earnest, and also because it was a necessity. The Budget was fair to all classes, and tariff reform was not • the alternative, inasmuch as a 10 per oent. duty on foreign goods would yield Mily £6,000,000 out cf the £16,000,000 • required after the necessary reductions had been made, and the rest would bo obtainable only by taxing food. > The Duke of Devonshire, speaking at Edgbaston, said the House of Lords would be fully justified in taking every precaution for seeing how far the Finance Bill dealt with finance and how fax it entered into the rather sketchy realms of future legislation. Before proposals so vast as those contained in the Finance Bill were forced upon the country the latter ought to have a=n opportunity of expressing its opinion.