THE BRITISH BUDGET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 24 April 1913, Page 5

THE BRITISH BUDGET.

CABLE NEWS

(United Preu Auoeiation—Bg M*ntrie Telegraph — Copyright.)

INTRODUCED BY MR LLOYDCEORCE. ••HUMMING" BUSINESS. (Received April 23, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 22. The House of Commons way crowded when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Lloyd-George, rose to deliver his Budget .statement. The Chancellor said that during the year every domicile industry had done humming business, despite the poor harvest, war, and strikes. In consequence of the increase in the Navy and the insurance scheme, he wanted an extra .seven and a-half million pounds, but new taxes would not be necessary. He was basing his forecast on tiie assumption that the coming year would be the most glowing for the British' trade ever seen. He expected that the yields from taxes', Customs, and excise, with a million from the Exchequei balances, would give a balance of £185,000. The new Budget revenue was estimated at £195,825,000, and the expenditure at £195,640,000.

UNEVENTFUL AND BRIEF. THE CONDITION OF TRADE. i EXPENDITURE EXCEEDS ESTIMATES. (Received Last Night, 9.5 o'clock.) LOAxION, April 23. The Budget speech of the Right Hon D. Lloyd-George was uneventful and brief. It stated that the overseas trade had reached its highest point, and the home trade was the heaviest on record. The coal strike had caused a loss of revenue of £650,000, while the withholding cf stocks of tea, sugar, and tobacco in anticipation of a reduction in duty has deprived the revenue of £450,000. Although eight million gallons less spirits had been consumed during the last four years, the higher duties had produced an increase of £2,000,000 last year. The expenditure exceeded the estimate by £4,671,000, due chiefly to unforseeni naval increases and additional medical remuneration under the Insurance Act. The expendistuire in nearly every country had ruahed up alarmingly through the growth of armaments, and there were small prospects of retarding it. Re conifidently relied upon the normal growth of revenue to meet the increased expenditure for 1913, with the excention of £815,000, which would be "met by taking £1,000,000 unspent by the Admiralty in 1912. He anticipated an increase from spirits and beer of £922,000, from tea and sugar of £619,000, and from tobacco of £905,000. The national debt was being decreased at the rate of £12,000,000 annually. It was proposed to re-institute the practice of two Finance Bills, one dealing with taxes and the other with amendments! to the law. THE DEBATE COMMENCED. Mr Austin Chamberlain viewed with anxiety the fact that the country wa* not profiting from the good but was spending every penny and mortgaging every penny. Further, the income was not increasing the reserve to meet bad times. He criticised as disappointing the land value duty, which had resulted La th* collection of £90,000 below the amount estimated in two years. The old sinking fund had been robbed of £3,000,000 to provide for commitments. He agre-c-a that the armament • expenditure wa,» beyond the Government's control, but it was different, in regard to the civil expenditure. ©ld . age pensions had proved to doul>le the amount estimated. Something similar had occurred in connection with the Insurance Act. He hoped the Government would' consider the question of the severance of the insurance administration from the Treasury. The Chancellor was, he said, over-sanguine regarding the estimates for 1913.