IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 130, 18 May 1911, Page 1

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

LLOYD-GEORGE’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT. I ; [PRESS ASSOCIATION. —COPYRIGHT]. ) I London, May 17. { ; Air. Lloyd-George estimated the! ! income for the current year at j I £181,716,000, and the surplus at! ) £132.000. j I The increased naval expenditure! ! was £4,000,000, and the total! ; £41,393,000. This was unexpected,; but he anticipated a substantial; ' reduction in 1912, and still further' ;in 1913. If half the rhetoric spent ) i on the peace campaign was genu-! i ine as he believed, there would be! an enormous reduction of annamerits as an immediate effect. Great Britain would be able to! si” nd more on education, housing,! ; rwiuction of rates, organising cf! I rural life and industry. The court ingeut Dreadnoughts -would not! be a charge on the next budget.; There would also be a fall in the; ; statutory provision for German, ! shipbuilding. This involved aj ; necessary reduction in the British • naval armaments unless a newi i menace interposed. | ! The army expenditure was £28,-, 000,090, and including education £34.500,000. The Uganda Loan amounted to £250,000. ' ! It was intended to reduce the! ! National Debt by £12,500,000.' During Mr. Asquith’s Chancellor-! ! ship the debt had been reduced by! - £42,250,000. During his (Mr. Lloyd ■ George’s) term, notwithstanding! ' the naval increase of 371 per cent., ■ ’and the old age pensions amount-' j ing to £13,000,000, the Debt had > ! been reduced by £28,700,000, the I whole representing a saving in in-! | terest of £2,000,000 annually. I Trade was increasing by leaps' * and bounds. Foreign trade had; ! increased in the last three years' 'by £213,000,000. ) ; The unemployment per centage' .in April, 1909, w r as 8.2; to-day it! ! was 2.8. i

t Air. Austen Chamberlain oppos-! jed the payment of members. He| ■ said that Parliament’s unpaid ser- ‘ 'vice to the people had been the) ! making of the country. AVhy j I should not county councillors and! | other local representatives be paid, i PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. ! (Received 18, 9.30 a.m.) ! London, Alay 17. ! Ex-Alinisters receiving political; ! pensions, and ecclesiastical com-; ! missioners, will be excluded from j ' the payment to members scheme. ; | Afany Liberals are in favour of j ! payment being withdrawn from ] ! army officers and others with pen- ' sions, and desire legislation to pre-’ 'vent hopeless candidatures, and to! prohibit a member from handing; hrs salary to members of his own constituency. ' Alany Liberals and Labourites ' prefer £3OO as annual payment, ; but the Nationalist leaders do not, ! desire salaries to be extended to ! the Irish, lest it should diminish the former’s control. A few Unionists do not follow Air. Austen Chamberlain, believing that payment of salaries will ■ facilitate the introduction of work-ing-class Unionists as Commoners.