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Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 6 May 1914, Page 5

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BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION-COPYRIGHT. LONDON, May 5. Ihe Chancellor of the Exchequer made a speech of two and a half hours, with, practically no purple patches Ihe magnitude and intricacy of the Proposals puzzled all parties.' He said that the relief of rates averaged ninePence. ln the pound, in some cases Is , A Pre-condition to grants to local authorities would be efficient service in respect of the poor law, police, roads, and education. Parliament for forty years had been imposing costly functions on local authorities without making provision to (sustain them. Many Acts, particularly in regard to housing, were dead letters, and in some districts, where the rateable value was low, municipal activity was at a standstill. Parliament practically acquiesced in the suspension of many laws because the local authorities were without means to carry them out. An essential part of the scheme was ■a national system of valuation for local taxation, which would be more equitable and impartial between classes and localities than the present. Such valuations should separate site from improvements, but there was no intention to transfer the whole burden to the site.

Half a million would be devoted to meals for needy school children, physical training, and open air schools. Hundreds of thousands attended schools daily in a condition of semi-starvation, and the attempt to teach such children was mockery and torture. Under the Voluntary Act 360,000 children Were relieved, but another 260,000 required help, and in future the State Exchequer would contribute half the cost of their meals.

Seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling would be spent in developing a national nursing service and local centres for diagnosis and research.