IMPERIAL POLITICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 309, 26 June 1912, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS

THE BRITISH SURPLUS. By o»bl»—Pr«w Jowoctotioa—Copyright. London, June 24. Mr. Lloyd George announced in the House of Commons that one million of the Budget aurplus would be devoted to the supplementary naval estimates, half a million to the development of Uganda and British East Africa, and iv« millions to the reduction of debt. DEVELOPING UGANDA. Received 25, 10 p.m. London, June 25. In the House of Commons Mr. Lloyd George said that without anticipating Mr. Churchill's statement regarding the ■urplus, the additional sum Mr. Churchill would ask for would not exceed a million, but further heavy payments would fall due in subsequent years as a result of the programme Mr. Churchill had found it necessary to outline. The Colonial Office was pressing for railway extension, and increased wharfage facilities to meet the yearly increasing productiveness of Uganda, especially in cotton and wheat. The injurious effect on the cotton industry through America's shortage had emphasised the danger of relying on one particular source. It was anticipated that 105,000 cwfc of Uganda cotton would be available in 1912. It Was proposed to advance half a million to Uganda at fair interest. The Government had paid off seventy-eight millions of the national debt; therefore insufficient payment did not account for the decline in consols. Mr. Austen Chamberlain approved of the disposal of the surplus. Pew chancellors, he said, had been able to reacquire consols at so small an expenditure. A variety of causes led to the low price. The credit of the country was bound to suffer while the Government piled up liabilities for the future. Mr. Asquith declared that social reform and the navy involved demands which no Government could resist; yet these had been accompanied, pari passu, by an unprecedented payment of debt. Trade was prosperous, and there was nothing to cause the least disquiet. THE DUTY ON TEA. THE GOVERNMENT OP INDIA BILL. Received 25, 10.25 p.m. London, June 25. In the House of Lords a motion to reduce the tea duty a penny in favor of British-grown tea was negatived bv 199 to 177. • The Government of India Bill has been read a third time. Lord Crewe, replying to Lord Curzon, denied any intention of granting autonomy on the lines of the overseas Dominions.