IMPERIAL REVENUE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 100, 25 April 1903, Page 2

IMPERIAL REVENUE.

- —♦ NEARLY ELEVEN MILLIONS SURPLUS REDUOTJON OF TAXES. REMISSION OF CORN TAX. PKR PRESS AtIHOOIATION Received 2I 4.52 p.m. London, April 23. Mr Ritchie, Chancellor of the Exuhequor, anticipates a surplus of £lO,816,000. He devotes 8| millions to .caking ofi"4d of the income 'ax, and ) with tha balance relieves indirect taxation, including the remissiou of ths corn tux. MR RITCHIE'S BUDGET SFBEOH. Rtoeived 24,10.'20 p.m. London, April 24. Mr Ritchie's Budgat spaech was cautious but not unhopeful of trade prospects. He emphasized 'be necessity i f a mutual uuder&Uuding butween capital and labour. Adverting to the question of the fall t in consols, he dwelt on the exceptional Government borrowings, the susprinshn os the sinking fund, the failing tff in ; gold from South Africa, the increase of i trust securities, colonial and municipal,! borrowings, to show that the fall in the' price of consols was noj surprising, j I'bera was, however, no reison for ap ; prehension. ; He estimated the revenue at X 154,-; 770,000, and expenditure at £143,-. 954,000. It was intended to devote 27 millions annually to a sinking land,! so that if no addition was made to the na'ional debt the whole could be extinguished in half a century. He expressed concern ut the military and naval expenditure, and hcpad there would be a considerable reduction of the former in future years ; but for Britain a s'roug navy was a matter of life and death. There was no menace to the happily > pleasant terms on which Britain stood ' with all power?, the relations between i France and B> itain being most cordial,; and all hoped that the mutual good i will which was animating the Govern- j meats and psop'es of the two countries,' as shown in the cordial welcome now ! being prepared for King Edward in I France, would yearly grow stronger. Received 25, 1 i a.m. Mr Ritchie, continuing, said he was ' glid to think some of Britain's neigh- j bours were inclined to cry " halt" in I the matter of naval expenditure. He ' welcomed such indications, and if others adoped such a policy Britain would readily and loyally respond. ! Upwards of half of the war taxation | had fallen on the income-tax payers/ whose contribution was .£39,884,000, and indirect taxpayers £31,962,000. ! He would be glad to appoiut a Ojhsmittee of the Commons to ii.quiro into 'he iucideuce and equity, also as to th 9 evasion of the income tax. The corn tax was necessary, while the life duty was inelastic and easily subject to misrepresentations. The remission would operate from July Ist. The cost of the South African and Chinese Wars hud besn .£217,000,000,j wh?r v >of 87| millions was met out of! revenue and 129£ millions out of capital. He hopad to recover from: Ohina six millious, and from South Africa 34 millions. | The aforesaid fixed annual debi charge of 27 millions would leave | £6,600,000 for a sinkir.g fuud. This, with the iecnipt3 f torn the Transvaal,' would rise in fwe year s to niua millions, or one and a quarter par cent, of the entire debt. The percentage was un- ] precedenled. Sir William Harcourt congratulated Mr Richie, but said it was scandal- ! ously uujus'. to benefit so largely the payers of direct tixition as compared with indirect taxpayers. . |. Mr Maldane characterised it as an I electioneering budget. I Mr Ritcbie stated that after the j, Crimean war the reduction of direct ' taxation was 75 per c.-nt., and indirect j i 25 per cent. '