The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 11, 1914. BRITAIN'S WEALTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 290, 11 May 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 11, 1914. BRITAIN'S WEALTH.

The Budget which the Imperial Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir. Lloyd George, has just placed before the House of Commons affords striking evidence of the marvellous expansion of wealth in Britain. The Chancellor has taken advantage of the opportunity to utilisq the increased revenue of the country for objects which will be of benefit to the masses, and the Conservative party naturally taunt him with extravagance. Probably the statement? by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, the Hon. E. S. Montagu, that the growth of national wealth was greater than the growth of taxation, and that the country could well afford the new Budget, also that the unequal distribution of wealth was indefensible, unless it could be shown that its possessors made an adequate contribution fr > State requirements, marks a forward move for the amelioration of the poorer classes. The chief matter of interest is the unparalleled increase that is exhibited in British trade and national revenue. The gross assessments to income tax in the last eighteen years have increased by £472,000,000, and in the last ten years by £247,000,000, while the total Imperial expenditure (excluding the Post Office, which is more than selfsupporting, but including local rates) amounted in 1913 to £230,000,000, so that the income of the claßses in the last ten years has increased by as much as the whole public expenditure, the increase of which was greater than at any previous period. It is remarkable how this rise is reflected in the trade returns. The exports now exceed £525,000,000, an increase in eighteen years of £299,000,000, while the increase for the last ten years was £234,000,000. In 1900, which was regarded us a good trade year, British exports were worth only £291,000,000, and no one would then have been rash enough to predict that in thirteen years the exports would have risen to £525,000,000. These huge figures, however, pale into insignificance by the side of the returns made by the London Bankers' Clearing House, which in 1895 cleared £7,593,000,000, 'hut by 1903 the amount had risen to £10,120,-. 000,000, and in 1913 reached the enormous sum of £10,340,000,000. Ordinary folk may well stand aghast at such statistics, 'but they convey to the average mind some idea of the boundless wealth of the Mother Country, and the vastness of its trade and commerce. In spite of this there arc thousands of starving poor, sick and indigent people eking out a miserable existence, not knowing from day to day where to look for the means of appeasing their hunger or obtaining the necessaries which they so urgently need. It is for these and the struggling workers that Mr. Lloyd George is taxing the rich few, and by taking advantage of the gocd times the much-needed relief may possibly enable large numbers to become self-reliant m as to face a slump when it arrires.