The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-30 00:00:00

THE BUDGET.

The further consideration of the Budget proposals
was proceeded with in Committee of Ways and Means
upon the resolution authorising the reduced scale of
income-tax. Mr. Gladstone remarked that the Budget
was one which, whether for good or evil, would un.
questionably be remembered in future times, because
it proceeded upon principles which at least entitled it
to that distinction. With regard to the proposed
cration of £37,000,000 of Local Loans Stock at 3 per
cent., he suggested that it would be more advan-
tageous to make it a 21 per cent. stock; while as
to the reduction of the tobacco duty, ho confessed
he did not feel altogether confident that the
full benefit would reach the consumer. But to the
proposed grant in aid of local taxation he took
serious exception, contending that such grants were
essentially extravagant, and opposed to strict adminis-
tration, while their effect was to take a charge off the
fund contributed by property, in order to lay it upon
the Consolidated Fund, which was supported mainly
by labour. But the gravest objEction of all was that
the proposed contribution was a voluntary weakening
of the ground on which the Government would have
to stand when they came to Parliament for its sanction
to an efficient reform of local government. Admitting
that the income tax stood at a discreditably high rate
for a time like the present, he contended that it ought
to be reduced not by a resort to illegitimate sources,
but by a wholesome process of public economy. The
proposal to effect the reduction by diminishing the-
annual payment for the redemption of debt, he sub.'
witted was not conformable to the principles of sound
finance. All invasions of the redemption fund of the
National Debt heretofore had been founded upon large
and sudden demands for additional expenditure; but
this was the first time in our history when that fund
had been encroached upon tor the purpose of remitting
taxation. He appealed to the Chancellor of the Ex.
chequer to give a candid and unprejudiced recoksidera—
tion to this step, and adjured him to remember that it
was the beginnings of evil that were most insidious
and dangerous.
Lord It. Churchill questioned the policy of reducing
the tobacco duty except as part and parcel of a great
review of taxation at a time when the indirect hardly
bore a fair proportion to direct taxation. The pro-
posal to make a further grant in aid of local rates he
regarded as a grave mistake, and as directly opposed
to the view propounded by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer in 1883, when he insisted that local govern—
ment reform must accompany any measure of local
relief. He challenged the right hon. gentleman to de-
clare his views with regard to public economy and re-
trenchment; for he confessed that the Budget pro-
posals had completely " smashed " his hopes of
thoroughly arousing public opinion against extrava-
gance in public expenditure and inefficiency in the
putlic service. It was to him a source of deep regret
that a Conservative Government should have been the
first to yield to the temptation which all previous
Chancellors of the Exchequer had resisted, of "making
a grab" at the Sinking Fund for the purpose of re-
mitting taxation, and gaining a little popularity which,
they really did not need. He entreated them to re-
consider their proposals, at least so far as concerned
the interference with the Sinking Fund for a purpose
which he characterised as paltry and frivolous.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer promised to consider
the suggestion made with regard to the denomination
of the Public Works Loan Stock. As to the reduction
of the tobacco duty, it was made on the ground that
the increase in the duty some years ago had not been
satisfactory in its results. The chief officers of inland
revenue and the trade concurred in the opinion that
the clauses against adulteration would have the effect
which they were intended to produce. The assistance
to be given to local bodies, he pointed out, was of a
purely temporary character, and would not in the
slightest degree either impair the action or slacken the
endeavours of the Government for a revision of the
whole system of local government at the earliest op.
portunity. A measure of local reform would be intro-
duced during the present session, but even if it were
passed a considerable time wculd elapse before the new
local authorities were constituted. Looking at the
distressed state of agriculture, and seeing that their
action involved no new financial principle, the
Government thought themselves justified in giving
this temporary relief to ratepayers while they were
awaiting that larger measure which had for so many
years been promised. With regard to the interference
with the sinking fund he based his proposal not upon
abstract theories, but upon the heavy and inequitable
pressure of taxation upon income-tax payers. They
were entitled to relief from a tax which was put upon
them alone without any compensating tax being im—
posed upon any other class; and he reminded the
committee that the existing charge for the debt was
now 0,000,000 higher than was thought sufficient by
Mr. Gladstone in 1874, when the prospects and position
of the country were brighter than they now were. He
should use his utmost efforts in the direction of
economy, but he declined to push his declarations to
the extent of saying that it was possible to reduce the
number of our ships, men, or guns.
A protracted discussion ensued, in which Mr. J. G.
hubbard, Mr. Heneage, Mr. Solater-Booth, Mr.
Childers, and others took partAand ultimately the retio.
lution was agreed to.
The House adjourned at two o'clock.
METROPOLITAN POLICE.

In the HOUSR OF LORDS, on April 26, the Metro-
politan Police Provisional Order Bill was read a second
time.

COLONIAL OFFICERS.

Lord Onslow, replying to Lord Sidmouth, stated
That the new regulations relating to employment and
remuneration of naval and military officers serving in
the colonies would be laid on the table in a day or two.
He further mentioned that those regulations had been
communicated to the Colonial Conference, and the
members of that body had expressed their satisfaction
with them.

Their lordships rose at 25 minutes to five o'clock.
TILE CRIMES BILL IN COMMITTEE.

In the HousE OF U 0113101,79, the House having been
moved into Committee on the Criminal Law Amend-
ment (Ireland) Bill,
Mr. Reid moved as an amendment a resolution set-
ting out the unwillingness of the House to pass a
measure which would prevent combinations of tenants
against unjust rents, until it has before it the measure
against excessive rents which has been introduced in
the other House. The bill, he contended, would enslave
the Irish tenants and deprive them of all the protection
they at present possessed by combination and other-
wise against unjust rents, and, though perhaps not
intended, would drive the tenants into purchasing their
holdings at exorbitant prices. A measure for securing
fair rents, he believed, would restore peace but the
bill which had been introduced into the Upper HOUFO
would not have that result. Adverting to the charge
against Mr. Parnell, he considered that it was disposed
of by the fact that a similar charge had been made by
Mr. Forster, and that subsequently Lord R. Churchill
and Lord Carnarvon had entered into negotiations with
Mr. Parnell. But even if it were true that Mr. Parnell
had written an infamous letter, that would not justify
such a bill as this.

Mr. Shaw-Lefevre seconded the resolution, arguing
that coercion never had prevented agrarian crime, that
Lord Oadogan's Bill could not pass in its present shape,
and that the House therefore would be unwise to part
with this bill until it knew what the lords really in-
tended to do.

Mr. A. J. Balfour commenced a brief reply by com-
menting on the evident signs of flatness and weariness
visible in every quarter of the House. From the most
recent returns he showed that crime, ordinary and
agrarian, was on the increase, and pointed out to the
opponents of the bill that the real grievance, which in
their eyes justified lawlessness and toleration of crime,
amounted to nothing more than over-rental to the
amount of 13 or 14 per cent. He thought the
landlords would be wise to reconsider their
contracts, even those that were made for them by
the Land Act of 1881, but he denied that the Liberal
party, who had turned the landlords into rent-chargers,
were entitled to object to Alum contracts being en-
forced. He characterised the amendment as intended
solely to delay the bill, and, in answer to a suggestion
by Mr. Gladstone, undertook that a memorandum
should be laifi befere the House showing what changes
had been made in the method of distinguishing between
agrarian and other crimes.
Lord Wolmer, speaking against the amendment,
remarked that the Liberal Unionists intended to do
their utmost to force the Government to push forward
a measure to stop unjust evictions, and challenged Mr.
Parnell 4n compel the " Times " by an action at law to
justify the letter he had so strongly denounced.
Mr E. Harrington spoke at great length on the sub•
ject of Irish evictions; and, after some discursive re-
marks from Mr. J. E. Ellis, who expressed his intention
of offering the most strenuous resistance to every line
of the bill, Mr. Wallace dwelt upon the unfairness of
not permitting the tenants to combine for the redress
of their grievances while trade unions were legalised.
Mr. Pilundella repeated the complaint the', the
Government were asking the House to pass a bill of un-
exampled stringency without giving a sufficient guaran-
tee that their measure of relief would be adequate. No
case so far as crime was concerned had been made out
for the bill which was aimed in reality, he maintaLed,
against agrarian and political combination.
Mr. Dillon, enlarging on the fallacy of the criminal