The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 19. THE IMPERIAL BUDGET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 177, 19 August 1909, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 19. THE IMPERIAL BUDGET.

Interest in. the Imperial Budget is evidently daily increasing in the United Kingdom, and the "catch-cry" opposition with which it was received at the outset is certainly modifying as the intentions' uf the Government are becoming better understood by the masses of the people. I Looking at Hie matter from this remote point, and judging by the tone of the I'ress which seems to be pretty fairly divided as to number and influence there is certainly considerable hope that ultimately the Budget proposals' will 'iol appeal to the public in vain. Already t great change has taken place in the views of even those who distrusted thi proposals in the first place. It is eafi

to say that the nuass of the people at | once recognised that whatever might he the drawback of the Budget it was' al least an honest attempt to provide for the deliciencv of sixteen millions by looking to the land anil accumulated wmlth of thi' country to bear a fairer share of tin 1 burden than had been home by them hitherto. This the representatives of both Houses' did not realise was possible. When the Old Age Pensions scheme was introduced the Conservative Press, being well aware of the'weakness' of the ordinary revenue to meet any extraordinary demand, constantly taunted the Government with gaily sanctioning an expenditure that they were unable to comply with, and professed to be curious to know where the money was to come from. Thej were met with thoirepfly that there were nuta.pped resources at the command 01 His Majesty's Government that w«.;V more, than meet all possible den... The subsequent appearance of the Bad get proposals has abundantly jiistilioi that statement. What the Conserva lives believed dare not be done has beci accomplished, and now the grievance i

I that the Government is not satisfied with providing fo r ,actual necessities', but is adopting means to collect a great deal more thian is required; and add the plea that before that should be done they should have n 1 mandate from the pcop'.';. To the majority of colonial readers, exactly what the policy of the present British Government is may best be (guaged from the .speeches of the leaders, amongst the most forcible, and logical of whom is Sir Edward Grey, Secrctai.v oi State for Foreign Affairs. From the speecn recently delivered by liim at Leeds, one would gather that an appeal to the country is an unlikely contingency, the crisis probably being precipitated by the action c',' the Lords. As the Lords cannot mangle the Budget, their only alternative is to reject it as a whole, which, if we understand Lord Lansdowne's recent utterances aright :.s what they intend to do, on the olf chance that the mass of the elector! I may be persuaded to cliange their mind But there should be 'little probability of this yrhen the mass o! the people re I cognise—as will be drilled into them b;

Liberal speakers' all over the country—that the "great gun" under the Constitution is the House of Lords, which can only be lived against the Liberals or their measures, and iS in the hands oi the Conservative Party. The people should not require to be told what would be likely to happen in these circumstances'. They will ha ye a sufficiently rough idea of the history of the .Pavty to know what they have to expect from a party whose interests are and always have been the interests of a class that never granted a popular concession except .grudgingly. It lias been a very arduous and prolonged struggle for the masses of the country to wrest such rights and privileges as they now possess from the people behind the "big gun" of tlie Constitution. Whatever ] view colonials may take of political events at Home, whether or not they believe in the Free Trade policy of til", present Government or the protection policy of the Opposition, the great weight of colonial public opinion supports the social legislation of the present Government, and wishes it well in its coming struggle with the class representatives of the Hoiine of Peers.