A FREETRADE BUDGET.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 110, 10 May 1895, Page 2

A FREETRADE BUDGET.

ABOLISHING PROTECTIVE DUTIES IN NEW SOUTH WALES. DIBECT TAXATION IN THEIR STEAD. A NON-POLITICAL CIVIL SERVICE BOARD.

| PBKSS ASSOCIATION.' 1 StdnsT, 9th May. Tho Hon. G. H. Reid, Premier and Colonial Treasurer, delivered the Budget this evening. He stated the aggregate deficiency at £1,822,000, which is a redaction of .£143,000 on the previoas year's. He intimated that it was tho iutention of the Government to place the expenditure on a cash basis, so that the oxaot relationship of revenue and expenditure would be dear and shown in the simplest form. The estimated revenue for the ensmug year is £9,118,000, and the expenditure .£9,062,000. It is proposed to wipe out the whole of the Dibbs duties on Ist July. The abolition of these duties will represent a loas to the revenue of .£555,000, whioh it is intended to replace by a Land Tax of Id in the £, realising £100,000, and an Income Tax, with exemption up to .£3OO, realising .£IBO,OOO. It is further proposed to provide for the old deficit by the issue of Treasury Bills, which in turn the Government hopes, to liquidate by the future surplus. There would, said Mr. Reid, be no spasmodic reorganisation of the Civil Servioe, bat it was proposed that the work be carried out by a Hoard of three Commissioners, who would be removed from political control. The Government recognised that a great quantity of money had been thrown away by the clashing jurisdiction of the various Departments, and it would be ridioulous and unsatisfactory to reduce salaries all round. Officers must bo paid for the value of the work done, and entrance into tho Service should be by open contest, and not by private influence. The Commission wonld be appointed without daloy, but the reorganisation of the Service, so as not to inflict hardship, wonld not be carried into effect until January. He estimated there would be a saving of a quarter of a million sterling in that direction. Dealing with tbe tariff, the Treasurer eaid it was intended that the Tariff Committee shonld deal only with spirits, wines, ales, beer, tobacco, oigars, cigarettes, and opium. He declared that to be the tariff polioy of the Reid Administration for the present. It was intended to abolish some duties, but to retain all the old specific duties of the previous Freetrade Administration until the 13th June, 189 d, after which those specifio duties would be removed, with the exception of those on sugar, kerosene, c&ndlei. and salt. These latter duties would be gradually abolished on a sliding scale, and the deficieuev oaused by tbe removal of specifio duties in 1896 would be met by a reform of the legacy succession duties, whioh, he hoped, would yield .£120,000. It was intended to amalgamate the Government Savings Hank and tho New South Wales Savings Bank, and he expressed the hope without committing the Government that such amalgamated bank would ultimately become the sole bank of note issue in the colony. The Government intended to devise a scheme for placing tho unemployed on tho land, and thus relieving the present difficulty. (Received May 10,11 a.m.) Stdnbt, This Dat. The Income Tax proposed by the ICeid Government is to be 6d in the £, and is expeoted to realise £108,000. The House has adjourned till Wednesday next. Tha members of the Freetrade Party consider the Statement the best ever delivered in the House "Sir George Dibbs thinks it is an absolute failure. Sir Henry Parkes says that when calmly and dispassionately read it oausea disappointment by reason of the mistaken assertions, tho Berions omission of several important questions, and its general defeotiveness as an exposition of the colony's finances.