The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-03-16 00:00:00

71111 BUDGET.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of
Ways and Means, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
introduced his Budget. Ilsviaw stated that there was an
estimated deficit last year of £1,161,000. the right hon.
gentleman said the years revenue had fallen short of his
estimate by £2,193,000, which hrotaght the total deficit
upon the estimates up to P. 3,3511,0110, and as supplemen-
tary estimates hail this year leon presented to the amount
of .C1.7K1,000, the deficit would have stood at something
over live millions had the Government spent all the money
Parliament had ernoowerecl them to spend. That,
however, they had not done. Having stated that the
actual cost of the warm South Africa had been £5.138,000,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that £1,1117,00U had
been saved out of the money voted, making the deficit
upon the twelvenionth £.431.5.000 The speaker said there
hail been a heavy loss on spirits, which he hoped indicated
an improvement in the habits of the people. It was satis-
factory to notice that tea and coffee had not fallen off at aIL
The expenditure of the coming year he estimated at
4.51,4156,0011, and the revenue at 1.81.5fie,000. leaving a
surplus of £74,000. To this lutist be added 4.700.000 as the
result of the changes in the prolsite and administration
clink% proposed by the Bill now before the House. Turn-
ing to the ace 1111 l Waled deficits of previous years, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to take • sum of six
millions of Exchequer bonds, and provide for the
immediate extinction of the floating debt by the creation
of • terminable annuity to last until IBM, for which an
annual sum of £1,100,000 would be sufficient. He pro-
posts' to supply this by appropriating the new sinking fund
of £lOO.llOO and adding a sum of 5.380,01.10 to the amount
now annually laid aside for the interest in del.L The
result would be to leave a surplus of I:le4,ooo.—(Few
people will place much confidence in these figures when it
as added that Sir Staffoni has not provided • shilling
towards the cost of the Afghan war)
In the hisses of C on Friday, in reply to Sir B.
Leighton, Sir S. Northcote said the Governmetit had been
considering the proisnal recently approved by the llouse
for the appointment .4 a Minister of 1111 l uerce awl
Agriculture, list the difficulties which he had pointed out
when the question was discussed hail rather grown than
when further examined. Answering Mr.
Muudella, the Chancellor of the Exchequer wild that the
cost of freight attentlin.: the movement of the Indian
troops to thelMediterranean was £7911,670, and there was
a further payment in India, but the figures could not be at
present given. The whole charge would be borne by the
Imperial Exchequer. Mr. Fawcett moved that, in view
of the 4:overninent's declarations respecting the Imperial
character of the war in Afghanistan, it was unjust to lay
the cost of it entirely upon the people of India. Mr.
Gladstone. in mincer, ing with Mr. Fawcett, said the acts
of the Cabinet had gone far X. efface from the minds of
the Indian people the memory of generations of
enlightened government. The alleged prosperity of the
Indian finances was, he contended, a pure matter of
account. Mr. Fawcett's motion was negatived.