MORE TAXATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8463, 31 May 1916, Page 3

MORE TAXATION.

MATCHES AND MOTORS.

THE BRITISH BUDGET

LONDON, April 6. There is nothing very revolutionary in the new War Budget, which provides for an estimated revenue of more than £500,000,000. Perhaps the most remarkable feature is the failure to make any advance at all towards Proteotion. Tho duties winch are being increased are mostly on articles which are essentially the objects of revenue taxation; and there is no grain of hope for the Tariff Reformers, quite a number of whom have expected that the war sooner or later must compel the Government to adopt Protection.

The income tax is being raised from tho level of 2s 1 l-5d to 3s 6d in the £1 to that of 2s 3d to ss, and that on un-. earned income is also advanced from the 2s 9d-3s (xl basis to 3s sd. But the taxes on soldiers and sailors' pay are not raised at all. These increases are expected to realise nearly £44,000,000 extra.

The uninitiated public heard with most surprise of the duty which is now to be levied on the import of sugar. The _ Government invested a score of millions or so in tho purchase of sundry sugar crops to keep the price down, and tho price rose accordingly from 2d and a\ fraction to an official 4£d. But this was official and no more, for few people indeed could purchase sugar for less than 5d a lb, and many grocers refused to sell any unless tho purchasers bought tea as well. Now there is to be a duty of £d a lb added, on the'ground, Mr Mc\Kenna says, that sugar ia still cheapr here than in New York.' This will put up the price at once, presumably to s{d, for any delay in making the new charge would only lead to another of those rushes for sugar which occurred at the beginning of the war. It is considered doubtful whether the higher price will cause much reduction in consumption. Cocoa is being raised from ljd to 6d per lb, and coffee and chicory from 3d to 6d per lb. A city coffee •morch.T thinks tho price of coffee has become so stereotyped at Is 8d and Is lOd per lb that the grocer will keep it there and get his own back by diluting the quality. New Pastures. The license duty on motor cars is raised very considerably. On the lowest power- cars it goes up from two guineas to four; but the scale is an ascending one, and the owner of a 60 horse-power car will have to pay in future £126 instead of £42. These appear to' be very heavy imposts, but the private car has become such a luxury and almost a rarity during the last year that not many people will be hit. The higher tax on motor-cycles will be much more widely felt; but from both classes of vehicles the Chancellor only expects to reap an additional £800,000.

Now to come to some of the new devices for getting revenue.

The most interesting of these are the taxes on table waters, matches, amusements, and travelling. Needless to say the tax on matches has sent everybody reminiscing about Robert Lowe's experiment-in the same direction.' It was on this question in 1871 that he had his first considerable fall. Proposing;' that there should be a tax of one halfpenny oh every box of matches .sold. Lowe'suggested that each box should boar the inscription "x luce lucellub " (out of light a little gain), and some war wrote the couplet.

" Ex luce luccllum we all of us know; But if Lucy can't sell 'em, what then, Mr Lowe?"

But Mr McKenna is. not to be deterred by the fate of his distinguished predecessor. There will be a tax of 4d per 1000 matches—the wooden ones, of coarse—which is likely to bring up*the price of a. dozen boxes of the cheapest matches to 6d. British manufacturers are not disposed to worry about it, for they have for months past been making all they could, and have had -to turn down many orders, for the home market. The Amusement Taxes. There is nothing surprising in the announcement that theatres} football matches, race meetings, and cinemas are to be taxed. Where theVprice for admission does not exceed 2d the tax will be -id, where it is not more than Id the tax Will be Id. Where the price exceeds 12s 6d there will be a tax of Is on that amount-and Is for every 10s or part of 10s thereafter. This tax is going to have very catholic effects, bearing, if anything, rather hard on the poorer classes. The youngster who takes a pennyworth of the "movies" is going to be hard hit in future, for ho must break into his second penny to get in. Similarly, the people who patronise the cheaper seats at the theatres are going to be more harshly dealt with than those in the better seats. There are aboiit 4500 picture palaces in England, with an annual revenue of perhaps £28,000,000, so this tax ought to be fairly fruitful. The impost on the gate money at football and cricket matches ought also to be a lucrative one. The clubs have never had any objection to the proposal | to tax the attendance, and as 15,000,000. persons attended ' 1140 matches in the three principal leagues in the year before the war, there ought to be a fair amount of revenue, and a continuously increasing one. It is believed that'this tax is likely to be a permanent one. Catching the T.T. Supporters of the brewing industry cheered loudly when the tax of mineral waters was announced. "Minerals" includes a number of concoctions, of a non-intoxicating nature, which are very much lavoured in these days of abstention, and it is probable that the prices of these drinks will go up con- , siderably. Sugar will be dearer by at least a half-penny a pound, and there will be the 4d a gallon additional on " table waters prepared with sugar or fermented." Bottles and packing rates have also risen in price, so when the advance in the cost of these waters i is-made it will be fairly large.

There is some difference of opinion on the propriety of taxing railway tickets. The general scheme is a penny on all tickets of the value of 9d to Is; and Id for every shilling or part thereof on single fares over Is, and all fares, single and return, over Is 6d. The return fare to Brighton will cost 9d more, to Birmingham Is 7d, to Edinburgh 5s 3d.