BRITISH BUDGETS.

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

BRITISH BUDGETS.

PROMPT INTRODUCTION. To-dav we publish details of the British Budget. introduced into the House of Commons yesterday, within a month of the close of the financial year. Our Budgets never appear until at least a third of the year to which they refer is passed. The British Inures are of far greater magnitude, and if they can he prepared in an average of three weeks it nei'ins strange that even four months is regarded a* essential here. Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli each (ielivered a Budget speecli whicli lasted iiv-j hours. Among living statesmen the record for length is held by .Mr. Lloyd George, who in introducing the lirst Budget in UHlit spoke for four Jiours and a iialf. The shortest Budget speech delivered in the House of. Commons during the past hundred years was in ISlis, when Air. (I. Ward Hunt wtis Chancellor of the Exchequer, lie completed his task in less than halt an lion;-. The late Sir Henry Lucy, iu referring to Budget speeches in "A Diary of Two Parliaments," wrote: —"Mr. Lowe introduced tiie wholesome custom of making his Budget statement brief. Air. Disraeli, iu strict, emulation of ;i similar feat on the part of his great rival, once took five hours to expound his Budget. It was a very bad Budget, and even a worse speech, for the gentleman who is now Lord Beaconslield has never through his long life been able to maintain beyond a *pace of twenty minutes the level of point and polish that in his political addressee etlectually Mipplv tie absence of stamina. Air. Gladstone treijueu.ly took three hours lor his Budget speech, ami lias never within my recollection accomplished the task under two. On March 11, when Sir Station! Xortluote made his la.-t Budget speech in the I memo-able I'arliamcnt then on tlie verge of dissolution, he spoke Jor an hour and ten , minutes." Lloyd George's Record. The long speech of Air. Lloyd George in P.Mi'.f, the report of which tilled nineteen columns of "The Times,'' was not an unbroken ell'ort. After the Chancellor had been speaking for about three hours his voice became taint, and the House adjourned for a brict time. When it re-limed, Mr. Lloyd ■George continued hi.; speech for an hour and a hall. I'his Budget made. Parliamentary history: it was rejected by the House of Lords, and the Government dissolved Parliament and appealed to the country. In introducing it in the House of Commons, Air. Lloyd George described it as a war Budget. Hut it was not lor "building gigantic flotillas lo cm-ouulcr mythical armadas," not for "building navies against nightmares," but "for raising money to wage implacable war against I'ovci i v and rtjua lidne*s.' : Jt made provision lor old age pensions and insurance against >ickness and unemployment by a super tax on large income*, increased death duties and the taxation oi land values. When the Budget reached the House of Lords that ( liambcr took ,he unprecedented course of i ejecting it. on a motion that the House "is mil j u -11 lied ill giving its consent t,, this bill until it iias been submitted to the judgment of lh" country. I lie House of Commons replied wiih a resolution "that the action of the Jbni.se of Lords in refusing to pass into law the provision* made by tins Jlou*e for the serviic of the year is a breach of the Constitution and a usurpation of tile rights of the Commons." Parliament, which had been elei led only eleven months before, was dissolved, and a gen ial election took place. The appeal to the country resulted in a substantial majority lor the Go* eminent, and :i mandate a ill no: 1.-ing it to deprive the House of Lords ot its power of veto over legislation passed ~v the House hi Commons. U lien the Budget was again sent to the House of Lords a motion for its rejection was deleateil by 321 vote* to INU, ana the Parliament Act passed in 11)11 deprived the House of Lords of its power of veto. I

The War Budgets. J lie Budget ot 19U-1.1, introduced by Mr. Lloyd I ;<■!!:;i;c, Imir months before the uutliicak oi war, provided for ;i revenue of i2oii.ooo.lMM). l hat was tlie first occasion in the liistory n." (irenL Hritain tliat tiie Budget I inures exceeded 12(10.000.00(1. except in 11)01-02, wiien owing to ihe Boer War the expenditure ,'t'aci ii'<l t-ii-ijilMi.lloo. ihe 11)14 lj Jiudget of i2itij.lMio.ooo hint to id 1 ;i i n i l l k! ft! when war broke out in August, 101-1. ami the total expenditure for the year, which included eight lisontlis of war. reached £."i(i().()0(l.00(l. J tl the lollouing year tin- war swelled the national e.\ peiiiluui e lo i I ..Vi! 1.000.000, ami lor the next (hive years I lie expenditure was: — 1!11«"> 1 T £2.1 !iN,ouo.ntio t'.U< is tL'.O'.Hi.ooo.ooo i2,."i7 , J,«Hl(i,<iUo After the war ended expenditure beuan to decrease. .nit in I'JI!J2O it leaehed £ I.Of,.">.000.000, and in 1020-21 it was £1.1 !).">.( M 10.000. Killing the period of war di'lieits.— from I'll!-!.-) to 1010-20 inclusive till' trial expenditure amounted to ,U I 1 ,2.i0.i 100.01 mi u . i i !<• thi' corresponding re veil lie amounted to only £ 1.07:1.000.000, leaving an aggrega t e deficit of £7. LSii.ooo.ooo io lie una liy borrowing. The dead weight debt increased llom £imO.OO(I.OOO (in March :tl. l!)l-t, to £1 .S.)2.000.000 tin .Man h 1, 1020, an increase of 17.152.000.0D0. u Jiit-li i.s almost identical with the total of the annual deficits.