THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1909. THE BUDGET BATTLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9659, 25 November 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1909. THE BUDGET BATTLE.

A cablegram published in our issue cf yesterday morning gives to some extent an idea of the earnestness of the Budget battle that is being fought at Home. The fate of the Lords appears to depend absolutely upon the result of the appeal to the country, which must now be made. The Lord Chancellor (Lord Loreburn) when replying to Lord Lansdowne, the Leader of the Opposition, on the occasion of the House of Lords meeting on Monday last to consider the sacond reading of the Finance Bill, concluded by reading slowly from a sheet of paper the following ominous and weighty words:—"lt is impossible that any Liberal Government can ever again bear the heavy burden of office unless it be secured against a repetition of the treatment which has been measured out in the House of Lords during the past four years. If the Liberals succeed in the coming election they will not flinch from what will have to follow. We have not provoked nor desired this conflict; but we are not afraid of it." So far from not being afraid of the conflict the Liberal party is only too anxious for the signal to begin. As Mr Lloyd George recently said the Finance Bill was a matter that concerned the Lords more than it did the Liberal party. The truth of the witticism naturally evoked laughter of a spontaneous character betraying deadly earnestness. And what is it that will "have to follow," and from which the Liberals, if successful, "will not flinch?" No less than "the reform ot the House of Lords," as the euphemistic phrase, in this connection, goes, but what will be practically the abolition of the House ot Lords as at present constituted. Despite the very reformatory nature of the British Budget, it is gratifying to know that there are many prominent Conservatives who freely admit the justice of the proposals that it contains. A striking speech has recently been delivered by Sir Jjhn Gorst, who was a member of every Administration of Lord Salisbury. In the course of his speech Sir John said:—"What was chiefly being charged at the present time against the Budget was that it was Socialistic. "That," he remarked, "is utter nonsense. (Cheers). It is not raising of money that can be Socialistic; it is the way you spe.-.d it when you hiive raised it. The catchword of 'Socialism" is used as

a bogey to frighten you in order to I prevent you asking for the money J which has to ba found tor carrying on the business of ttn country. Nearly all the money so sp?nt must "be Socialistic, as it is not sp;nt for the good of individual?, but for the benefit of the State rs a whoK They say the Budget is confiscatory. There is not a single precedent which can be adduced in the last three hundred years in which the iKcisio-s of the House of Commons upon the finances of the co.mtry had been inurf.-red with by the Lords. But the word has gone out from the leal leader of •he party. He wrote a letter to the Birmingham meetirg, in which he /expressed the ] hope that the Lords would throw oufwie Budget. , I not believe now that either of so-called leaders of the Tory party in the House of Commons or the House of Lords can restrain that being done. The thing has gone beyond their power, and I believe you will see that the Lords at the bidding of that statesman will throw out the Bill. It will be strange if Mr Chamberlain, who went a long way toward the destruction of the Liberal party at one epoch, and who destroyed the Tory party at another epoch, should end his career by destroying the ) House of Lords." (Cheers).