The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-12 00:00:00

MR. E. J. REED AT PEMBROKE.

Mr. E. J. Reed, C. 8., M.P., addressed a crowded
meeting of his constituents at Pembroke on Saturday
night, and devoted himself chiefly to the consideration
of financial matters. Quoting from a work beetled in
1874, which pronounces it monstrous that BO large a pro-
portion i.f the public income should be derived from taxes
which press heavily on the masees, he said that neglect-
ing those sources of income which formed part of the
commercial operations of the State, and which could in
no sense be said to press heavily on the masses, such as
those of Post-office and telegraph cervices, Crown lands,
&c., the only sources of income which could be said to
press on the masses were the IL 'ustoms and Excise duties,
which this year will contribute forty-six and a half
millions out of the total revenue of seventy-four
millions. As the remark iffithe work in question was
made before the repeal of the sugar duties, it would
be well to take the figures of the previous year, 1873,
to ascertain how the Customs and Excise duties were
made up. The Customs duties amounted to twenty-
one millions, of which wine, spirits, tobacco, arid snuff
contributed between thirteen and fourteen millions,
and tea and sugar Fix and a half. The Excise
duties, amounting to twenty-six millions, included
twenty-five and a half millions of spirit and malt
duties, and licences. In the face of such facts he
doubted if it was in the least degree fair to speak of
the monstrous oppression of the masses in the present
state of taxation. And when it was remembered
that our population of twenty-three millions con-
sumed in the year 1873 sixty three million bushels of
malt, forty million gallons of spirits, and eighteen
million gallons of wine, bringing 180,000 psnsons into
police courts on charges of drunkenness, it could
hardly be thought by reasonable persons that the
duties upon such drinks unduly diminished the
traffic upon them, and oppressed the masses by
making it difficult to get enough to do them good.
Obviously the cheapening of wines, spirits, and intoxi-
cating drinks to any large extent would aggravate the
evils of drunkenness to an enormous degree. In dis-
cussing the question of expenditure, Mr. Reed said it
was necessary to hear in mind how much was done out
of the present national expenditure to improve the na-
tion, and which might be looked on as indirectly contri-
buting to the health and well-being of the country. The
cost of law and justice hail been increased by nearly a
million ; that of education, science, and art by a
million; that of the Post Office by £200,000; and that
of public works by a large amount. He did not adduce
these facts as any reason for relaxing efforts in the
direction of financitd reform, but as reasons ford. sl-
ing with the finances of the country with thnnghtful-
urea
and moderati.si. In his opinion the public mind,
and more particularly the masers of the people, were
misled on the question of finance by not bearing
in mind the e,sirmons incubus of debt handed down
from past times, whereby twenty-six millions were
annually devoured---an amount equal to one third of
our national taxation.