THE BUDGET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1130, 28 June 1867, Page 4

THE BUDGET.

(From the European Times, April 11.) Mr. Disraeli's Bndget is simplicity itself. Estimating the income for the current year at £09,430,000, and. the expenditure at £G5,131,000, lie calculates on a surplus ot' £1,200,000. Of tkis surplus lie appropriates tlircc-quartcrs of a million towards the reduction of the National Debt, and £'210,000 to a reduction of the duty on marine insuxar.ee, being a net surplus of nearly a quarter of a million, liis sehemc , relative to the de-ot is substantially the same as Mr. Gladstone's plan of last year. He proposes to convert twenty-four millions of the debt into terminable annuities, ending in April, 1885, when, naturally, that amount will be cancclled. This year the net charge on the annuities will be three-quarters of a million ; but in the following years it will be a little above a million. Mr. Gladstone complained of the great increase in the estimates, an evil which ho was always regretting even when in otlice. He described the increase in the Customs and Excise as most extraordinary considering the iiuaueial depression of last year. Mr. Gladstone referred in terms of the highest eulogy to the efforts of the American people to reduce ■ tlieir enormous debt, for such a course they regarded us essential to the future power of their country. A decrease of forty-two millions j of tho American debt in the course of sixteen \ months tilled him with admiration. Such eon- | duct ought to shame the nations of Europe into ! efforts to reduce their overgrown national debt. | Mr. Gladstone stated that Mr. Disraeli deserved | credit for tho proposals in his Budget. Of I course, there were complaints by some of tlie | Tory members of tho injustice done to the agriculturists by not dealing with the Malt Tax, the reply to which was, that as the estimates were two millions in excess of those of last year, the better plan would be for a Government of Conservatives to be less extravagant in tlieir spendiugs. As there are no salient points in the Budget, the debate that followed was more than usually dull. It may be mentioned that Mr. Sheridan will move lor tlie total repeal of the duty on lire insurance; but there is not the least reason to believe that he will succeed/ Mr. Disraeli's Budget specch occupied lifty minutes in the delivery, though it might readily have beeu eomprcsscd into a speech of ten minutes, so few anil unexeiLing arc ifcs_ features. A critic who was present says —'■ Compared with Mr. Gladstone's elaborate and exhaustive annual essays, soprofound in then-investigations, so large in scope, so comprehensive in survey ; so minute and fastidious iu research, so abundant in illustration and suggestion, the present Chancellor of the Jixchequer's .Budget speech seems as modest ami as meagre as a page from the diary of ouo of those happy nations which, (he proverb assures us, ] la vc no history !'* .But to do tlie peculiar merits of this performance justice, it should be compared or contrasted some othci moie ambitious performances of the same spcakei dining the present session—with the speech introducing the Reform resolutions, for instance, in whicli the darkness of uncertain counsels was made visible, and even the unknown was rendered more obscure. The specch was listened to for the greater part with attention, but without any approach to enthusiasm.