FEDERAL POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8170, 1 August 1906, Page 3

FEDERAL POLITICS.

LATEST CABLE NEWS. tsited press association —nv KlELECTBIC TELEGSiPn.—COrViI'.'.TIT

THE BUDGET FIGURES. PENNY POSTAGE DECIDED UPON. Received 31st, 9.5" p.m. MELBOURNE, July 31. Sir John Forrest, Federal Treasur er, delivered his Budget. The revenue amounted to £11,879,001, an h./iva-e of .til 1,000. Customs aid F.sriv yielded £8,999,000, and was responsible for £200,000 of the increase. Stimulaiits and narcotics yielded £1,333,000, and the Postal revenue £2,525,000,! an increase of £192,000. The expenditure amounted to £l,195.000, being £lll,OOO below the estimates.

The estimated revenue for the current year is £11,1590,01X1, and the ex penditure t'o,l >20,000. The cost of Federation last year was Is 6d per head, and the estimate for uext year is Is 10d per head. It is proposed to inaugurate penny postage Australia and the Empire from October next.

The system will be cxtenden to all countries which will agree to deliver | letters at the new rate. It is estimated the system will result in an annual loss of £2O'J,OOO, or £157,0J9 for tic nine months of this financial year. THE FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. SIR J. FORREST'S DEBT CONSOLIDATION SCHEME. Beceived2l,4 20pm. Melbourne, July 31. The revenue returned to the States amounted to £7,380,000. The esti mited return next year is £6,951,000. Deductions include £20,000 towards the development of New Guinea, £281,000 for sugar bounty, and £25,000 for deportation of Kanakas.

Sir J. Forrest referred to the prosperity of the pastoral and other industries, and outlined a schemo for dealing with the financial problem. He suggested that the State debts, as existing at the establishment of the Commonwealth, he taken over as soon as possible, and the balance be taken over as soon as an amendment to the Constitution enables it to be done: also that the Braddon Clause cease at the end of 1910, and thereafter the States should be paid a fixed annual payment for ten years on the basis of three-fourths of their average net revenue of the preceding hire years, any balance to be returned on a per capita basis ; that any new or additional Customs or Excise revenue be ear-marked for a specific purpose. such as Old Age Pensions, but any balance after providing for same, be returned to the States on a per capita basis. His suggestion also included that the book-kecj!!i,• system cease at the end of 1910 and that the States undertake not to borrow on the London market, except through the Commonweaith, up to the end of 1920.