Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1937. THE BRITISH BUDGET.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 123, 26 April 1937, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1937. THE BRITISH BUDGET.

Within three weeks of the close of the financial year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer opened his Budget in the House of Commons. In its details it is a tribute to the financial methods of the Treasury. Finance in Britain is treated with the utmost respect. Within a few hours of the close of the fiscal year on March 31, the Treasury had issued a statement giving the amount of revenue and expenditure, and when the colossal figures are taken into consideration the achievement is remarkable. The Chancellor has now given to the nation a full account of the finances for the past year and the estimates for the current year. Mr Chamberlain expects a revenue for the current year of £BGS,UOU,t)U(J and a total expenditure of £8G2,848,900. To obtain this revenue lie relies upon a natural increase in Customs, but income tax is increased by 3d in the £ to ss, and the revenue from this source should show a substantial increase. There is also a tax on profits which has surprised many Conservatives and pleased the Labour Party, but it is expected to be generally supported. Meanwhile it has caused some perturbation on the Stock Exchange. As many companies will be doing well from the expenditure on armaments, the Chancellor is asking for a contribution to the cost of defence. The tax on one-man trusts is to prevent evasion of taxation, and so is the tax to prevent “bondwashing.” It is a sound, wellbalanced Budget, and after all will cause very little of the disturbance to British industry and trade that was feared at the outset. A danger lies rather in another direction. The activity of British industries generally in dealing with armament work, it is feared, is causing some of them to neglect export trade. Moreover, the rise in prices is also tending to check the export trade. But the British have a faculty of adapting themselves to changed and changing economic conditions rapidly, and they will soon overcome all difficulties. The British Budget must be the envy of the other nations, for there is not one of them that can show a balanced Budget or even stable finance. The United States fiscal year closes on .June 30 Avhen the deficit, is expected to’ reach 2,557,000,000 dollars (£511,400,000) which is about five-eighths of the total revenue of Britain for this year. And the American public debt at the end of the financial year will amount to 35,500,00,000 dollars (£7,100,000,000), about as big as Britain’s war debt. Prance has a Budget deficit, so has Japan, and what the dictator countries arc doing no one knows. We

Lave said that in the United Kingdom they have a wholesome respect for finance, and because of that Britain is the financial centre of the world. A heavy expenditure on defence has been forced upon her. That expenditure is estimated to amount to £1,500,000,000, and instead of borrowing a greater part Britain is deriving' £1,100,000,000 from taxation, and £400,000,000, or less than a third of the amount is to be borrowed. Britain’s financial stability has been the world’s admiration, particularly since the dark days of 1930, when a crisis was overcome by orthodox methods.