THE EXPENSES OF THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3003, 30 September 1878, Page 4

THE EXPENSES OF THE EASTERN QUESTION.

House of Commons. Avg. 6.—The Chancellor of the exchequer, in committee of ways arid-means, made a supplementary financial statement relating to the expenditure incurred on account of the Eastern Question and the mode in which it is to be met, reminding the committee that in his original Budget he had provided for an 'expenditure of £81,020,000, exclusive of £2,750,000 of Exchequer Bonds issued last year to meet the charge of the Vote of Credit, which would fall due in the course of the next financial year, and exclusive also of an unascertained amount of supplemental estimates, which he hoped would not exceed* from £1,000,000 to £1.5p0,000. To meet these liabilities a revenue was provided by additional taxation of £83,230,000, leaving a surplus over ordinary expenditure of £2,210,000, so that if the supplementary estimates had not exceeded his anticipations, there would have been £700,000 left in hand towards the reduction of Exchequer Bonds. But the expenditure had turned out to be larger than was anticipated, and the supplementary estimatesnow before the House amounted to £2,618,000. In addition to these £748,000 had already been voted for the conveyance of the Indian troops to Malta, so that since the Budget there had been incurred an additional expenditure of £3,366,895. This changed the estimated Budget surplus of £2,210,000 into a deficit, of £1,156,000, which was due mainly t*o what he called the "Vote of Credit Services." It contained, however, a sum of £344,000 for the Kaffir war, and before the end of the financial year it would be necessary to come for an additional sum of £400,000. The general result therefore, was that for the current financial year there would be supplementary estimates to the amount of £3,767,000, ■which, ' added to the £2,750,000 unredeemed Exchequer Bonds, gave a' total supplementary expenditure to be met this year of £6,617,000. The .Budget surplus would provide £2,210,000, so that the actual deficiency to be met would be £4,307,000. Of the £6.000,000 Vote of Credit granted in February, about £3,500,000 had been spent up to March 31, and since that time there had been spent; on* the army £1,549,000,, on ■ t|ie navy .£634:000, and on the movement of Indian troops £741,000, making altogether a total expenditure of £6,427.000 for the serviceg's contemplated by the Vote of Credit;-rßot> war services, but services intended to prevent war, and which he

believed had been mainly instrumental in effecting that object. Of this £750,000 had been met out of surplus revenue of last year, £1,370,000 would be provided out, of the surplus of the present year, leaving £4,300,000 to be provided. JS ext year in addition to the same surplus, £1,370,000, there would be a remanet of £600,000 income-tax, or about half the four millions odd. Consequently, next year we should be able to pay off halt', and in the year after the remaining half of the £4,300,000 left to be provided for. As the Vote of Credit was asked for three years, and as the actual sum spent was so little in excess-of the original demand of £6,000,000, there was no doubt that the original pledge would be redeemed, and the Government therefore did- not think it necessary to disturb the revenue system of the country at this time of the year by additional taxation. It was proposed therefore to issuq Exchequer Bo.nds to the amount necessary to carry the process of redemption over the next two years, and on the present occasion he asked for power to issue £2,000,000 of Exchequer Bonds. The Charicellor of the Exchequer concluded by saying that he saw no reason for apprehending a falling off in the revenue, and by expressing a confident belief that the estimates which he had submitted comprised the whole of the charges.