THE BUDGET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17199, 20 June 1916, Page 4

THE BUDGET.

SIR JOSEPH WARD COMPLIMENTED. MINISTER WILL NOT DISCUSS PROPOSALS. PAN CARRY THEM 0"T. Sir Joseph Ward was .interviewed by a reporter yesterday, but refused to discuss his Budget in the newspapers or to answer newspaper criticism in Chri&tchurch. He said that the proper plane for that kind of thing is Parliament, when the Budget is discussed by members. In the meantime, congratulatory messages are pouring in on him from'many parts of tho Dominion, from Australia and from tho Old Country. These, and the remarks made to bun personally, convince him that the proposals in the Budget generally havo been well received.by the public both in New Zealand and' abroad. One of the questions asked most fre--8 neatly by those who have studied tho udget is" how the Minister of Finance will'discover the war profits, of which ho proposes to tako 45 per cent. It is thought that ho will find it a very difficult task to state exactly what are war profits and what are ordinary profits. Sir Joseph sr.id yesterday that ho did not anticipate- /my difficulty whatever in that direction. Ho was confident that he would' be able, by legislation, effectively to carry out every proposal made in the Budget. The machinery for doing this will he provided in tho taxing measures, whteh will be submitted to Parliament after tho Budget has been dimissed.