BRITISH POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 330, 4 March 1910, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

NAVY ESTIMATES—FORTY-ONE MILLIONS. . FINANCING THE GOVERNMENT. WHAT OF THE BUDGET? By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright London, March' i. The House of Commons has empowered the Treasury to extend its borrowing fund from March till the end of September and to transfer £6,300,000 i'rom the sinking fund to the financial •service of the year. Three and a-half millions thereof actually formed part of Mr. Lloyd-George's Budget. Maurice Healv, Independent Nationalist, -was elected unopposed for North-East Corlc. E. J. Soares was re-elected unopposed for Barnstaple. Unionist papers jeeringly ask what Jias become of the Budget, and protest against the Government's refusal to adopt Mr. Austen Chamberlain's suggestions to pass the income tax resolutions •forthwith. Speaking in the House of Commons, "Mr. Austen Chamberlain stated that it would toe May or June before last year's taxes were collected. Mr. Lloyd-George replied that the chaos was due to the unprecedented action oi the Lords. The Government s scheme., he added, had to be considered an o whole, therefore it was impossible to introduce the resolutions earlier. MR. REDMOND'S "CRACKED BLUNDERBUSS." THE LORDS' REFORM FROM WITHIN Received 3, 10.45 p.m. , London, March 3. Mr. Maurice 'Heaiy, in a speech to his constituents, said Mr. Redmond was armed with a cracSed blunderbuss, ready to vote against the Governemnt nrhen every regular Oppositionist refrained, but he was too careful in other -circumstances to fire the cracked weapon. , Mr. O'Brien taunted Mr. Redmond •witji resting upon an academical resolution which the Lords would light their •pipes with, and the Redmond-ites and ,Radicals would then return to their electorates to meet a sounder drubbing than before. Mr. Redmond, in acknowledging American contributions to the Party's fund, predicts a general election before many weeks. The Siippkmentarv Estimates, totaldins £689.100. including £45.700 for preliminary work on the four contingent Dreadnoughts which are to be lafd down ■h? the first of April, were agreed to .after a short discussion between Mr. Lord Beresford and Mr. R. McKenna (First Lord). , , The. Unionist leaders in the Lords .n----•tend to introduce proposals regarding the reform of the House, firstly by declaratory resolutions. It is now stated that the Navy Estimates total £41,000,000.