The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-04 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF COMMONS-LAST EVENING.

THE BUDGET.

Tho house then went into Committee of Ways and
Means.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER rose and
said—Mr. Dodson, after the warm debates and the sharp
crisis of last week it is with great relief and satisfaction
that the Government, and that I myself, approach the
handling of important public business which we hope and
think can involve no subject likely to lead to angry contro-
versy. It will be my duty to enter upon points, in the
course of the remarks I have to make, which, as I think,
possess an interest for all in this house, and especially fur
those who are connected with the land and fixed property
of the country. I hope, however, from the nature of the
proposals I have to make, and indeed I feel convinced upon
the matter, that it can only be through my own negligence
or inadvertence if anything which falls from me should
possibly come into conflict with the feelings or opinions
of any hon. gentleman opposite, and I would beg, if it be
permitted to me, to apologise in advance for any such error
should it occur. I have not to-night to announce to thele
house the existence of any surplus revenue up3n a
such as we have had for the last three years at our disp
During the last three years it has been my dutyless tao
sumas t_l2:
house to make arrangements relating to nee_money,
and
the average than three and a half millions f
fiscal affairs of the present
year,
yettheir interest and although we we move within more colnsbaanlcsltebdavliempitrsopinostahles
to make which will not be withietuot
lay before the house the
tance. My first duty is as usual to
the 31st March.as
tsr
estwhichia
estimated one
expired ohne
particulars of the ex
Thatpe n d
oi cuo
porer
and
ni
dturaesy' finally sanctioned by
27th of April was .£66,1-3-,
was
very
nearly the same
the Appropriation Actitexpenditure was £65,014,000, or
£66,141,000. The actualtby
l
£233,000. As regards the chief
there were voted for the army
spent £13,804,000. For the
£14,34 , ,
itemses s than h
ofaB no 0 thetho e
expenditure,
navy there were voted. £10,456,000, and there were spent
einidaeiteruerweere
£10,260,000, but it will be in the recollection of the house
that towards the close of the financial year we took a con-
siderable supplementary vete for the purpose of the New
Zealand War. No less a sum than £764,000 was voted for
that purpose, and that enabled us to rectify the accounts
of the army and navy by assigning to their proper heads
sums which had been paid in advance for the purposes of
the war, and included in the ordinary accounts of the
army and navy services. When the whole of the figures
arc put together, therefore, the result, as I stated, is to
bring the actual into agreement with the estimated expen-
diture of the year, We that expenditure for the year should

perhaps be added an item which is not very easy to-deal
with, inasmuch as the peculiar arrangement under which

it appears before us leaves it uncertain whether it should
be regarded as part of the annual expenditure or an addi-
ly
faonaopfcgr!Braue6arna6ni tnlyugoppf
portion
otenoouvr fortifications,oo6nt46hasidesof4g aotvho aooe,
f.whichberinpege
Thereno
tion to the public debt. I refer to the sum of £560,000 on,
xdpae
ads
un tomoi tuhict,
es tg!bessahowever,de
f
above £1,000,000 for Indian and other charges, which,
account, cannot caannnthotatbethsaaidtru-
to
e
totaml of the expenditure ?nay be taken as being £65 424 00Q
for the financial year which has just expired. If I look
for a comparison with the expenditure of former years, I
find that the expenditure of 1859-60, when duly charged
with what belongs to it, amounted to
.£69,762,0(10, but id'
that were included large sums on account of -annuities
which expired in 1860 - a much larger sum than the
amount of the annuities since created. The amount of
annuities which then expired was £2,149,000, and
those created since amount to £710,000, showing
difference of £1,439,000 towards the extinction of debt
which was provided in the former year, and has not been
provided in the years just passed. lf, therefore, we take
the expenditure of 1859-60, for the purposes of comparison,
at £68,323,000, that of 1865-6 will be £65,424,000, showing
a decrease of expenditure in 1865-6, as compared with
1869-60, of £2,900,000. But the year 1859-60 was the
year in which the most important changes in the scale of
our expenditure were made ; and if I go back to 1858-9,
and compare the expenditure of that year with the ex-
penditure of the year just expired, rectifying both accord-
ing to the rules which I have stated, I find that the ex-
pieneenrdeatauer
in 01f8615845
, as coB-9wmaspaornedlywft63h
1,282558,-090,00,f s4.2ho;ijno,gooaon...
That may be taken as a fair and accurate statement of Ole
condition of our expenditure at the present moment, as
compared with what it was six or seven years ago. If I
look to the heads of expenditure I find they stand thus :
—The debt costs us £26,233,000; our defences, military
and naval, £24,829,000 ; our civil government, in which I
include the miscellaneous estimates, the Consolidated Fund
charges, and packet estimates, £10,250,000 ; and the cal-
lection of the revenue, £4,602,000. As the collection of
the revenue, however, ought really to be divided between
the other heads of expenditure, not being itself an inde-
pendent, but only a subsidiary and auxiliary description
of expenditure, I will treat it in that manner. Dividin%
it, then, between the debt, the military or defence chargisi
and civil charges, I find these to be the percentages :—The
debt costs us 43 per cent. of the whole expenditure, the
defences 40 per cent., and the civil charges, defined in the
manner I have stated, the remaining 17 per cent. That
n qualification,
insignificant,
ae l s o be at
hk a e
tn anshtaiheneh a
totalics c trt er aastluel
Ins
it
nao threoemr
gea
on
dt ,
des
onur
itb jonefgc
ttthhteeo
debt
eehbai
rte
eenmseesdoiuf
mtheofNTateionainlaDybelbetAthnpenrymeuiistiienselaunddednoatsutnthroughextPh
ac-
tually charged on the interest of the debt. if I compare
the expenditure with the revenue of the year it is this
cg 1.43
revenue, The expenditure, according to the Exchequernue
aaccount laid
upon the table, was £65,914,000, the
the same Exchequer account, was £67,812,000, showing
surplus of revenue overexpenditure of £1,898,000. If I
were
to e
to treat the accounts for fortifications as part of the e•
en-
diture of the year, that surplus would be reduce.-pd
to
£1,338,C00, but I shall take notice of them when I come to
consider our engagements in connexion with the National
Debts under
No ww,
ith which a
matter
of
h head they
someoug ht mor e properly to be
interest
to
compare the
natural outturn of the revenue at the end of the year with
the estimated revenue at the commencement of the year,
The estimated revenue at the commencement of the year
was X 66,392,000, and the actual receipt has been £67,812,000,
showing a surplus receipt beyond the estimated amount of
£1,420,000. This surplus runs very much through the diffe-
rent branches of the revenue. I need not trouble the Com-
mittee with the figures as to each particular branch, but the
actual revenue from the Customs has exceeded the estimate
by the sum of £369,000 ; the actual receipt from the Excise
has exceeded the estimate by the large amount of £758,000;
the actual receipt from S tamps has exceeded the estimate by
£270,000 ; the yield of the income-tax also went beyond the
estimate by the sum of £240,000. The grant of taxes to
the Post-office has produced precisely what they were esti-
mated to produce ; and the Crown lands have yielded the
same as the estimate withintethe sum of £5,000. But the
miscellaneous revenue and the receiptfrom the China com-
pensation fell short of what had been estimated by the
sum of £224,000—an amount which, in order to estimate
the real growth of the revenue, ought to be added to the
surplus I have formerly named, inasmuch as those two
heads indicate a diminution merely on certain repayments,
and have nothingto do with the question of the real springs
and elasticity of the revenue of the country. In the same
way, if I proceed to compare the revenue of the past year
with that of the preceding year, I find that it stands as fol-
lows :—On the whole of the nine heads of revenue the re-
ceipts in the year 1864-5 were £70,313,000. In the year
1865-66 they were £67,812,000, showing an actual decrease
of £2,501,000, in lieu of an estimated decrease of £3,921,000.
But if I strike out those two heads of Miscellaneous Re-
ceipts and China Compensation, which have no real relation
to the subject, 1 find the actual loss was £2,386,000, in lieu
of an estimated loss of £4,028,00. So that the rate of
growth of revenue, which I stated last year, on an ave-
rage of the six years preceding, to be about £1,780,000 per
annum, amounted almost precisely to that sum. It may be
stated that for the year 1865-6 the revenue of the country
from the same source, and excluding all legislative mea-
sures which tend in any way to affect those sources, has
grown by the sum of a million and three-quarters. It would
probably have grown by a somewhat larger amount if the
circumstances of the harvest had been more favourable. But
whereas in 1864 tie harvest was a fine one, and the price Of
wheat between October and December was 38s. sd. per qr.;
during the same period in 1865, when the harvest was below
the average, the price of wheat rose to 445. 10d. per qr., and
the price of wheat, on the whole,
is a very goodinvorso
test of the general condition of the country and the capacity
of the people to consume thosecommodities which yield the
principal part of the revenue. If I look now to the branches
of the revenue of last year as they were specially affected
by the changes of 1864-5, they stand thus : —The estimated
loss upon tea came singularly near to the actual lose. The
estimated amount of that loss was £1,868,000, and the
actual loss was £1,871,000. This might naturally have been
expected. We have generally found that, under favourable
circumstances, the loss upon commodities of this kind
which have been subjected to a reduction of duty is less
than had been previously estimated ; but in this particular
instance I am inclined to think that a motion to which this
house was induced to accede for postponing the operation
of the reduced duty on tea—although I don't believe we
should have ultimately lost much by it—has had an un-
favourable effect upon the revenue from tea. But what is
more important is that the stocks have been less than at a
former period. The price of tea in bond on April 1, 1865,
was 16d. per lb., and on April 1, 1866, it had risen to 19d.
per lb. A reduction of 6d. per lb. in the duty on tea was
made; and as 3d. out of that 6d. per lb. was virtually neu-
tralised by the increase on the price paid in bond, I think,
o
on the whole, we may be pretty well satisfied that the loss
this item of receipt has not been greater than was ori-
ginally calculated upon. The case of the income tax shows
a somewhat smaller loss than was expected. The loss upon
that head was estimated at £1,650,000, and the actual loss
has amounted to £1,568,000. I have again to announce to
the committee that there is one estimate which fluctuates

in a singularly satisfactory and agreeable manner now
almost from year to year, and that is the value of a penny
upon the income tax. It has grown within our recollection
from between £700,000 and £BOO,OOO until it now amounts

to no less a sum than £1,400,000. (Hear, hear.) Next, I
come to the subject of fire insurance, in which the house
feels a deep interest, and with regard to which the hon.
member for Dudley (Mr. Sheridan) recently, in conformity,
I think, with the general wish of the house, forbore to
make a special motion antecedently to the financial state-
ment for the year. The change which was made in the
year 1864-5 has now been in operation for a year and a
half. That was the change which related to the dutyvv,o
on the insurance of stock in trade against fiforre.
the full
have, therefore, had the effect of thadte as,
changeyear with re-
spect3ear. The change which was ma
upon everything except stock in
been
in actual opera-
and furniture of all kinds,
hasbecause it is a change the
to the larger portion of the duty,.trade, nano namely,
bt
uh
iel
ddinu duty
dtiuo
tny, f:erceosnsal
operation of which,
owing
-ct only half a year after it has
to the arrangement of the
• ent. We have thus only half a
yrilsyixtakmeosntbs,g
alteration, and the result is as
year's experience
perhaps be remembered by the house that
follows:—It may
follow hon. gentlemen, who I am bound to
I declined to
been ordere.dnobsy
numerous and of great authority, who have at
say are very
all times held out very sanguine prospects of a very large
increase on the amount of property insured in consequence
y benefits
attend
the
ed r
eduetio n advantagesof
Parliament.
'of the reduction of the duty. lam not at all insensible to
whicht he gr out
partand aolfwtahyeshhoauvsee believed,if
they
werethat
to it
expectwould
this
ao
duty;t he other
but points I
believe,o f view
mvairsytaklaersona
ex-
pansionth in the amount of property insured from the reduc-
tion of the duty. I therefore estimated an increase at the
rate of only 10 per cent., and I mean that estimate--I mean
that I placed it at that figure—rather in deference to the
opinions of others than perhaps because it was precisely
the amount that I should myself have chosen. However,
that rate of increase has not been realised. Comparing the
two duties and comparing the value of the amount of pro-
perty insured for the six months, for which alone we have
the figures, I find that, as regards the loss of revietsnuacetull
the year, I estimated that loss at £260,000.he
in
tt
amount has been £272,000. And as respects increase
sttands thus:—
the amount of property insured, the case
erOCt. 1, 1864, and
The amount of property insured beo
twhich alone the com-
parison;he total. value of the pro-
perty 31, 1863- the six months
setooo in value ; while from
can apply—
showing an increase of
.£-.1r7 000,000, or about 8 per cent. But then there is a regu-
larpOcs tt.yl, i
alBs
u6sr
e,
dt owAla
sa rxwch6a2sB7l,o, -01-0850,
standing increment in the value of the property insured
which is not due to a reduction of the duty, but to the
growing wealth of the country. That increment is on an
average £17,000,000 for the six months. If I deduct this
1060,000, which is due to the ordinary growth of the
wealth of the county;', from the £17,000,000 ITllich forms