The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-31 00:00:00

3teurbribge Crserser

SXTURDAY, MARCH 31, 1888.

TB E *BUDGET.

M. GOFCREN has justified the high expect-
ations which his great reputation as a fin-
ancier gave rise to in the Budget proposals
he made in the House of Commons on Mon-
day. The Financial Statement of the
Chancellor the Exchequer was a masterly
performance, and merited the encomiums
passed upon its construction and delivery by
Mr. Childers and others not precisely of Mr.
Goschen's way of political thinking in all
things. The right hon. gentleman's task on
she. first occasion in his career of dealing
with the nation's revenues under eircum-
staoces which he himself, so far as a tioia.nee
Minister is able to do, had for a twelve-
month had. the control of, was looked, for-
ward to with much anticipation. Lan year
he hal to mike the best of ways and means
which had been largely pr )vided and man-
need by other hands ; this season he rose in
his p ace to give an account of a stewardship
for which he alone is responsible, and to
propose r..,etharls of 113 own foe raising in-
come and planning out ex penrlitere. The
Budget is always a heavy task ; this session
Mr. Goschen has had to face it complicated
-with vast intended changes in the machinery
of Le.ell Oovernment. The bare 'enumer-
ation of the details of the national income,
and of the way in which Mr. Goschen de-
sires to manipulate Britain's resources, oe-
citpie,l three-and-a-quarter hours in an
attentive ;rouse. He went cver the whole
round of indirect taxation, and catered for.
the rateeayer as well as the taxpayer. He
hada goodly sarplus, but circumstanees ha
given him a good deal to accomplish with it.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer's endeav-
our to please all interests is not at all ti,nes
a happy one, and sometimes the Minister.
fluda on Budget nigh that he has tro Idea si
heavily on the corns of so ne influential sec-
tion of the community that certain 3f his
propessla have to be modified. Bat cu
Monday, Mr. Goschen, making a Financial
Statement and introducing ache nes of a
more complex nature, perhaps, than any
before expounded from the Treasury Banah,
was particularly well received, and at no point
daring his address had to submit to loudly
eltpressed dissent. He had the largest
realised surplus to handle which had fallen
to a Chancellor for foirteen years; but he
was not satisfied to utilise this alone for the
re-edjastment of taxes. To provide for the
e•lief of local taxation in consonant.° with
Mr. Ritchie s C )unty Government measure
he had nearly three millions more to raise,
and he appears to have done so in a spirit
which aims at equitable presses on all classes.
Excepting those carts used in husbandry for
other than haalage purposes, and therefore
not calculated to wear away the roads, all
carts are to be laid under contribution to the
T.-wenn° Theugh there are many whose
hoise and cart is their sole stock in trade
;tad means of livelihood, and on whom the
proposed new annual duty, 'Wall as it is,
will press heavily at any rate at first, no one
earl say such a task is unjust or unreason-
able It is making the users of the road pay
for its repair direct, just as the dead and
gone toll bars did in the old days. We
apprehend, too, that work done or goods
sold by the cart propriotor will be chargett
for the futare slightly more to his customer
or employer, and that he will thus find a
way of collecting from others what Govern-
ment levies on him ; so that after all he will
not have much real ground for grumbling.
This cart tax forms p.‘rhaps the most con-
troversial propesll which Mr. Gesehen has
made, and may have to he reconsidered in a
coneilitary way, theugh we contend thAt,
looking at the matter in an unprejudiced
l'ght, the Chancellor of the Excheque.. :las
qaite made out his case. Ihe tax on pleasure
horses and the heavier duty on race horses
are distinctly good, as the owners of such
will suffer no unduly severe oeprivation in
:•ontributing in respect thereof to the ration's
. purse., So long as indire!t taxation as a
~'iuoiple is recognised and observed, it will
!atat received by the great majority when
• It:steibuted over life's luxuries, and affecting
eiost those most able to pay. The new tax.
5.1 a 'coal,. on flue wii,es is thus rc.g.trded
ith g,_•neral favoar, and we sty no valid
obj-ctii,n to those oi Mr. Goechen's propos ls
which have reeard to stamps for stocks and
shares. He may raise money without hurt-
ing t!i payer by getiug a small sum out of
eaeh transfer of sctip, by making an indi.
ina;gnifieant, charge, but collectively
ioapoets.nt total levy oia the LOW issues of
blle- es, end by increasing the duty on con.
trrtc; notes. Itt an these instances Mr.
LiOsciam haas evinced ingenuity which will
receive mach commendation. If he could