" REAPING THE WHIRLWIND."

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 62, 10 September 1910, Page 13

" REAPING THE WHIRLWIND."

MORE INDIAN REVENUE REQUIRED. "I did not sow thp storm, but I am reaping the whirlwind," is the concluding sentence of Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson's introduction to the financial statement and budget of the Government of India. "No right-minded man," he says, in the Blue-book just printed for tho House of Commons, "can impose additional taxation on India with a light heart, a large proportion of its people being poor and an appreciable proportion very poor. 1 ' The "whirlwind" referred to above means extra taxation to the amount of £1,133,000. The losb owing to the gradual diminution of the export of opium to China, amounting to dt>«7l,ooo, accounts for a large portion of this increase. The fresh taxation falls Under three main heads — increased Customs duties on liquors, on tobaccos, on silver, and on petroleum. In this way it is hoped to obtain an additional revenue of £967,000. Increased stamp duties will bring in £133,000 more, and alterations in the Excise duties £33,000. Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson says the profits from railways would no doubt improve, and the elasticity of most of the other heads of revenue is happily assured. But the decline in opium receipts must bo treated as • permanent and heavy demands lio ahead in the cause of oducation and other requirements.