The British Budget.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 13, 6 May 1914, Page 5

The British Budget.

FOR H UMAN STY’S SAKE.

LLOYD GEORGE STATESMANSHIP.

[By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] Press Association. I London, May 4. The Chancellor of the Exchequer made a speech of two and a half hours, with practically no purple patches. The magnitude and intricacy of the proposals puzzled all parties. Improved Local Authority Service. Mr Lloyd George said that relief rates averaged ninepence in the pound, in some cases Is Gd. A pre-condition to the grant to local authorities would be efficient service in respect of the poor law, police, roads, and education. } Parliament for forty years had been imposing costly functions on local authorities without making provision to sustain them. Many acts, particularly in regard to housing, were dead letters, and in some districts, where the rateable value was low, municipal activity was at a standstill. Parliament practically acquiesced in the suspension of many laws because the local authorities were without means to carry them out.

An essential part of tho scheme was a national system of valuation for local taxation, which would be more equitable and impartial between classes and localities than the present.- Such valuation should separate site from improvement, but there was no intention to transfer the whole burden to the site. For tho Children's Sake.

Half a million would be devoted to meals for needy school children, physical training, and open air schools. Hundreds of thousands attended schools daily in a condition of semistarvation, and the attempt to teach such children was mockery and torture. Under the Voluntary Act, 360)000 children were relieved, but another 260,000 required help, and in future the State Exchequer would contribute half the cost of their meals. Seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling would be spent in developing a national nursing service and local centres for diagnosis and research. The Trade of 1914. After consulting with the best authorities, ho was of opinion that though there would be slackness in certain trades others would be busier than over, and on the whole he expected no serious set-back to trade in 1914, which was-likely to be an average one. It was not safe to anticipate a continuation of the boom of 1913, but the depression would bo shallow, and would not last long. Increased Taxation of Wealth.

Direct taxation M’as now 60 per cent, and indirect 40 per cent. When the Government came into office, each was 50 per cent. Death duties on estates of over £60,000 would bo increased until the maximum of 20 per cent upon estates of a million was reached, instead of the present 15 per cent, realising three millions for the full year. The increases in the income and super tax would make a man with £IOO,OOO a year pay 2s 6d in the £l, compared with the present Is Bd. A statutory declaration of total income would be enforced, under stringent penalties, in order to prevent investments abroad, where income could be accumulated as capital. Mr Chamberlain said he would not attempt to debate the complicated changes, though he deprecated the raid on the sinking- fund. The House of Commons agreed to the income tax resolutions and adjourned-