BRITISH POLITICS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9141, 9 May 1908, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

THE BUDGET

TRIUMPH FOR MR ASQUITH,

Press Association—Copyright. Received May 8, 3.6 p.m.

London, May 7.6 I The Budget estimated the'i'expenditure at £153,889,000 and revenue at £157,770,000. Mr Asquith appropriates the realised surplus of £4,776,000 chiefly for old age pensions, _beginning over 70 years at £36 per annum, and a combined pension for married couples of £39. The fnew taxes on sugar are reduced to one half. Loudon, May S. In his speech on the Budget, Mr Asquith said that the revenue for the past year was £156,538,000. The income tax had yielded £11,80,000 above the estimate. The differential income tax had proved practicable and its collection had worked as smoothly as that of tire permanent tax. The National Debt had been reduced by £18,030,000, and by; the eud of 1908 would he reduced to £696,000,000 —the same figure as in 1888. Under his predecessor the reduction had been at the rate of nine millions per year, and undoUthe present Government £15,500,000. Tiie reduction of interest on the debt amounted to nearly million a year, all done out of taxation. The time was now approaching to slacken the reduction and relieve the taxpayer. lie estimated the expenditure at £152,869,000. Regarding old age pensions the Treasury, and not the local authorities, must pay the cost, but some discrimination was essential. It was proposed to except aliens and lunatics. Those of 70 years of age and upwards not actually in receipt of poor law relief and not disqualified by recent conviction for serious crime, or by the possession of an income of £26 per annum or upwards, or in the case of married couples of £39, should be entitled next January to 5s per week, except in the case of married couples living together, who~were both entitled to a pension. In that case a joint pension of 7s 6d vronld he given. It was assumed that the pensioners would mot exceed half a million, and the maximum cost six millions. The cost of the pensions from January to March would be £1,200,000. Mr .Austen Chamberlain thought that a contributory compulsory scheme of pensions itnight- have been framed, and would have been a success.

Mr Chaplin, in complimenting Mr Asquith, both as regards the scheme and'the lucidity iu his unfolding of the Bngdet, remarked that since Mr Gladstone’s great [Budget he had not heard so great an effort.

Mr Henderson said he was dissatisfied with the pensions scheme both as regards the age and the income limits. Mr John Burns stated that the receipts of 10s asj'a superannuation allowance from trades union funds would not disqualify for pensions. , Mr Lloyd George intimated that the Pensions Bill would provide for it being worked through the Post Office and the local pension authority, and the officers acting under the Excise Department. The usual resolutions were agreed to except the income tax resolution, which is to he discussed hereafter. The Budget proposes no new taxation. PRESS COMMENTS. Received May 9, 7.55 a.m. London, May 8. The Times remarks, that """the Budget marks an epoch in National policy, and declares'that“Mr Asquith is reckless and improvident in disposing of the whole surplus in face of admitted requirements for large shipbuilding, to keep pace with the development of the German navy. Several newspapers comment on the absence of a sliding scale in the pension scheme, and the fact that those with incomes under 10s a week receive a pension, while those just above are deprived of the pensions to which they contribute. The Daily Mail emphasises the evidence of mortality re turn s\ and says that workers are unlikely to be satisfied.' It adds that the scheme cannot he final and that the future is heavily mortgaged. Tariff reform alone will be able to discharge the obligations. The Standard says that the Budget seals the door of free trade.

The Morning Post says that free trade has played its part and must leave the stage, and describes it as the most reckless Budget of modern times.

The Daily Chronicle says it is a great Budget with for its keynote sound finance and social reform.

The Daily News says that Mr Asquith had cleared and ploughed the rough grouud, and it will be Mr Lloyd George’s full harvest of reforms, It adds that a rapid expansion of pensions is-possible from a super tax on large unearned incomes and taxation of site values.