MOTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 April 1918, Page 5

MOTHER COUNTRY.

I THE BUDGET. i further details. * London, April '23. Although Mr. Bonar Law did not estimate the yield of tlio luxury tax it is expected to yield about 25 millions. Mr. Bonar Law announced that tlio income tax allowance for si wife would be the same as for children. The public has received the stupendous budget with remarkable sangfroid, realising that tax-paving will lie one of the supreme tests of endurance. The new taxes, which will bring in 114 millions, amount to CO per ceiyt. of the total taxation in the last year before tho war, but few are likely' to murmur. The Chancellor of the Exchequer anticipates that he will receive 542 millions this financial year, but the revenue will eventually reach the enormous figure of 900 millions when the taxes on incomes, e.vcess profits, etc., attain their full effect three years hence. ( The revenue in 1013-14 was ICS millions.) Last- year's revenue was actually £707,235,000. An especially satisfactory feature was that every heajl of revenue showed an excess over the estimate. The excess profits duty realised 220 millions, being 22 millions above the estimate. The tax on higher incomes, wlrch lias been raised to (is, will yield £41,400,000. Regarding double income tax, the extra shilling will not be paid where the combined tax reaches (is. The super tax is increased to 4d. beginning with incomes of £2s(]o instead of £3OOO. This will yield £14,1.50.000. In view c' the feeling that farmers are not paying a fair share of the burden, it is proposed to tax them upon the assumption that their profits are double their rental. This tax will yield £5.300,000. Penny letter postage is raised to IJil. inland postcards to Id. which will yield £4,000.000. The increase of the tax on cheques to 2d will yield £I,OOO 000. The Budget necessarily has not revealed the details of the estimated expenditure for the current year, but it is expected that the army, navy, munitions and aviation together will absorb 1001 millions. Mr. Bonar Law anticipates that the advances to the Dominions will not exceed 50 millions tlii3 year. He was warmly cheered on remarking on the smallness of this item, adding that it had been small throughout the war, showing the desire of all the Dominions to meet their own war expenditure out of their own resources. Correction: The budget states that the aggregate war revenue to the end of the 1917-18 year will be 1044 millions, and the total to the end of the current financial year, on the present estimates, will be 1080 millions. The newspapers favorably comment on the budget. The prevailing view is that the heavy taxation involved will be borne cheerfully by the public so long as it is known that the country's resources will be tised to the utmost, to defeat the enemy. Other comments say the budget reflects the country's financial strength and solvency. The Daily Mail sr.vs tlio budget is popular, but it does not go far enough. The heaviest taxes are placed on the shoulders of a \erv small class who will ,not complain. The Mail is confident that the mass of wage-earners would not resent a graduated tax on wages. The Times declares that the budget shows that the nation's finance is kept unimpeachably on a solid foundation. The luxury taxes are entirely satisfactory. making the first substantial departure from our very narrowly grooved fiscal system. APPEAL AGAINST DEATH SENTENCE. London, April 23. The Government has added a clause to the Army Bill giving officers and men a right to appeal before the death sentence of a court-martial is confirmed, also any officer or soldier asked to resign a commission who is aggrieved shall have the right to appear before a member of the Army Council. BRITISH R4SADYFOR SACRIFICES. London, April 23. Mr. Churchill, addressing the American Labor Mission, said that the worse the news was from the front the readier Britons were to make sacrifices. Under the pressure of this hard fought battle we had drawn hundreds of thousands o£ men to the colors. Tho same was tlie case in France and America. The German attacks had brought at least a million of the Allies into the field. RETENTION OP GERMAN COLONIES. London, April 23. Bishop Prodsham, late of Queensland, wil! move in the Canterbury Convocation on April 30 that the Allies should resist the restitution of the German colonies in the interests of the natives.