MEETING GAPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 7

MEETING GAPS.

CHANCELLOR'S TASK. Supplementary • Estimates Will Be Needed. REVENUE FLUCTUATES. British Official Wireless. i " (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, April 26. At the outset of his Budget speech, Sir John Simon said that though it had been decided from the beginning that rearmament should not be financed entirely from taxation, and borrowing up to £400,000,000 over live years had been authorised, there were three things to be borne in mind in forming a proper judgment at the present moment*

The first was that in the Defence Estimates for the current year they had already provided for taking £700,000,000 from outside sources. Therefore, the gap to be filled was really £120,000,000, of which they had already decided that £90,000,000 should not be got bv additional taxation. Secondly, the Government liad announced, and was already in the course of carrying out, an acceleration of the rearmament programme- The whole country realised the necessity of and approved that decision, but it meant substantial Supplementary Estimates later in the year, not Included in the total of expenditure for which he was budgeting. He intended that those Supplementary Estimates should be met out of loan money u-«ler the Defence Loans Act. Peak of Defence Expenditure. The third consideration was the most serious and important of all. They had to look beyond the present year. The peak of the defence expenditure would not be reached until next year, perhaps even in the year after. Moreover, the huge outlay on Mar material also involved higher annual maintenance. After observing that nothing would contribute so much to the ultimate 'eduction of the burden as increased mternational goodwill and reduction of armaments which would follow from it, an . which was the aim of the foreign Policy the Government was pursuing and 01 which the agreement between Britain and Italy was a striking instance, the hancellor said that he had come to the conclusion that he would not be doing « duty if he followed the easier course u y borrowing.

th take some proportion of . e increased expenditure on our Moulders by increasing taxation now. By i ! n 8 w 'e shall reduce our difficulties th flu a " d we sha " ahow the world > the country does not quail when it ace ß the burden of expenditure." Last Year's Figures. the outcome of last finan- ..... y ear > the Cliancellor said that inp^ nUe an, ounted to £872,580,000, an n0...! 886 <. over the Budget estimate of and an increase of 1836 37over the financial year mil? i further interesting comparison he *' that the total of £872,500,000 of tinio" 116 rece 'Pts in a single year was five fisn * ® rea t er than the corresponding # r e of a quarter of a century ago. wit" enera '.' last year's figures bore : , ness to improvement in trade and Uatry, though it would not be right r egard them as proving that the »: ar Wa f °»e of progressive and con- , f® improvement throughout. It Ha appear that the first six months „uf e more prosperous than the second. ou gh the latter were still good. Remarkable Income Tax Yield. On the whole Customs and excise * n « e ''ad more than justified the P imistic view taken by Mr. ChttmberJ 1 year ago. Inland revenue yielded 'W00D—£3,750,000 more than the "'late—which was the net result of 'e remarkable surplus of the yieid of "come tax of nearly £10.000,000, offset y short falls of £5.000,000 on stamp outiea, £1,000,000 surtax, and £500,000 n " e National Defence Contribution.