The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1935. BRITAIN'S HEAVY BURDEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1935. BRITAIN'S HEAVY BURDEN.

For the cause that lactct assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can do.

The Inst British Budget, which was presented by Mr. Chamberlain, was dominated by defence expenditure, both actual and prospective. That is true also of the Budget which Sir John Simon presented yesterday. It must be regarded as the most extraordinary financial statement ever presented by a British Chancellor in peace time. After estimating the yield from current taxes at £914,400,000, he had to face a shortage of 120 millions. Of this 00 millions is to be found out of loan money, and the Government has decided that the remaining 30 millions must come from taxation this year. So the income tax, which last year was raised by lid to i>/ in the Ml, is raised again, to •>/(), and the petrol tax and the tea duty are increased. But this is not the end. The Budget now presented takes no account of the expenditure involved by the recent decision to accelerate rearmament. This expenditure will be reflected in "substantial supplementary estimates" later in the year, and will be met out of loan money.

The peak of t-he rearmament expenditure may riot he reached until 1940, and the Chancellor has given warning of the increase in annual maintenance expenditure which follows naturally from the expansion ot' the three Services. There is thus a plain intimation that the burden will be heavier yet. In the year just past tin* yield of income tax was high, but other sources of inland revenue fell below the estimate. This fact, and the admission by the Chancellor of some decline in business in the second half of last year, must give ground for anxiety concerning the revenue in the year now commenced. , But Mr. Chamberlain is resolved to pusli on with the rearmament of Britain. The seriousness with which he and the Government regard the present international situation is plainly indicated by the Budget itself, and by the announcement that supplies of wheat, whale oil and sugar have already been purchased "for an emergency." Meanwhile, we in the Dominions must reflect on the magnitude of Britain's effort, and wonder how much of it would be needed if there were no British Empire. In short, to what extent is the British taxpayer bearing our burden as well as his ownt