LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

[IROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] .' London, April 19. Apart from the Imperial Conference, the chief London event of the current week has been the delivery of the Budget. This had been looked forward to with .somewhat exceptional interest owing to the strong feeling so widely prevalent that the condition of affairs which has prevailed since the termination of the war, could not continue indefinitely. The persistent pressure of the shilling income tax has been felt a grievous burden, apart from the consciousness that it also meant the virtual misappropriation of our reserve war chest. Further, the income tax pressure was felt the most keenly by the largo middle-class which has recently made its power so decisively felt in the County Council election. .Ministers are well aware that they owe their present position purely to the revolt of this same class against their incompetent and discredited predecessors, and it was an open secret that Air. Asquith would do what might be done to propitiate this important class of the community without alienating the extreme Socialists among the Labour party, who strongly advocated the full maintenance of-the income tax and its'devotion to such objects as old age pensions.

EARNED AND UNEARNED INCOMES. Yesterday afternoon Mr. Asquith produced his Buaget. To-day it is tne cnici top.c of conversation. Its general gist lias been cabled, so i need only remark that its principal feature consists in the adoption 0i the very proper and equitable principle of discrimination between earned and unearned in-] comes, and in the reduction by od in the £ of the income tax upon incomes of the former (the earned) class. Both of tnese steps appear to be generally approved. What does not meet with anything like the same approval is the intimation that henceforth the inquisitions touching the incomes of taxpayers are to be tar more searching and stringent than heretofore, while every employer will he compelled to disclose all required information regarding those in his employ. It is hinted that the sum lost by the 26s per cent, reduction in the rate of taxation, may very likely, be recouped through the fuller exaction of the sums Que. An outcry has already arisen, however, jgainst the objectionably inquisitorial charicter of the contemplated procedure, and so "ar it certainly does appear as if any popu.arity that might be derivable from the mvering of the tax will be entirely discountid by the unpalatable nature of the atteniant drawbacks. Moreover, a strenuous protest has been raised against Mr. Asquith's assumption that henceforth a shilling income tax must remain and be regarded as an essential basin oi, revenue, for it will be observed. that this involves the perpetual continuance of an impost which is not only peculiarly unpopular and oppressive, but which has always been declared bj r the great financial luminaries of the Liberal party, notably, Mr. Gladstone himself, to be highly inequitable and inexpedient, and which Mr. Asquith himself last year characterised as unjustifiable, while the-very sound financial objection that it involves using up our war reserves in time of peace, thus leaving us nothing, to fall back upon in case of war, remains as prominent as ever.

INCREASE IN DEATH DUTIES. Another provision in the Budget, which is naturally hailed by the non-propertied classes, but not by tnose who possess property thus taxable, is the increase in the ueatn duties. These duties are necessarily fluctuating in character. They have brought in a vast sum during the past year, and have; already begun well in the current year, al- „. though it is less than three weeks old. But now that a good many years have passed since Sir William Harccurt brought them in with so loud a nourish of trumpets as practically a class of taxation whicn could hurt nobody, it is beginning to be realised how 'ihese duties work out, and how formidably ;hey cripple for several years, at any rate, the successor to an estate. Instances to a. large number could readily be adduced of cases in which the heavy death duties payable on accession have involved the shutting up of the family seat and the consequent • impoverishment of its entire neighbourhood.! In other Mays the shortage of funds for the! years after succession lias made itself felt upon the revenue, and this is bound to be the case all the more under the new rates.

In fact, the goose that lays the golden egg is being gradually bled to death, and as the •ears go on, this will have more and more >ffect upon various classes of the revenue. Dll these things are being brought under public notice now by skilful financial writers, and an early effect must necessarily be much sharp controversy over the new Budget. ■It will pass, of course. But not, I fancy, without material emendation. r THE GREAT CONFERENCE. As regards the Imperial Conference— colonia l if you preter the —Ministers seem to have got themselves into a tight cor- . ner. To speaK vulgarly, they are " between the devil and the deep blue sea." They must either stultify themselves and all thenmost blatant protestations, or else they must • render the Conference a failure. And this, if only for one single reason : That the question of preferential trade must inevitably come up and be thoroughly discussed. It is equally inevitable that the Imperial Go- ' vernment should take one side, and all the colonial Premiers emphatically the other. That is an exceedingly awkward prospect, and it has been the realisation of this fact that has led the Government to adopt a course somewhat analogous to "jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire." It is difficult to conceive any situation moie embarrassing to. Ministers than to see the' tact published that they and the colonial Premiers stand arrayed in two opposite] camps on the vital question of Imperial j policy, while the publication of the re»pec-i tive arguments pro and contra, would as-1 suredly not tell in favour of the Home Go-' vermnent, especially when it is considered that Lord Elgin and Mr. Winston Churchill would be pitted against such able men as those who represent the colonies at this juncture. There are few poorer speakers j alive than Lord Elgin. Mr. Churchill can doubtless be clever in the sense of smartness < and flippancy, but he can make but a poor! show against such speakers as some of those to whom he will be opposed. Keenly realising all this, the Government have devised a,! truly notable plan lor averting the danger, j This brilliant device is no less ridiculous a one than attempted secrecy, and this obligation has been imposed upon the Confer-' once and all its members. All the visiting! Premiers desire that the discussions should be open to the press and should be reported f. as fully as those in. Parliament. The Imperial representatives alone objected. They ; dared not to consent to publicity. Had the matter been put to a vote they would have been hopelessly out-voted, but" by making a very urgent appeal to the Premiers and representing that publicity would be highly injurious to the public good, they, with great difficulty, persuaded the colonial representatives to consent very reluctantly to the desired privacy. It is* no secret that the only subject which Ministers wished to be discussed in private is that of preference, but of course it would not have done to say so, «* to make that the exception, seeing that it was the very topic which to everyone else would seem best suited to public discussion. So their only course was to make all the pro- . ceedings secret. And this has been done. Upon the pretext of giving " results " to the press an absurd and perfectly worthless typewritten memorandum is sent out daily or nightly when the Conference sits, setting forth with the greatest minuteness and elaboration the names and titular designations of each person present, and the wording of a "y formal resolution actually carried. And that is all. MR. CHCRCIIILI/s AUTOGRAPH. Every day after the Conference rises I receive in a long envelope, bearing the frank j of Mr. Winston Churchillhis own valuable autograph—and typed upon foolscap paper, £4ch sheet of which is headed with the embossed Royal initials "E.R.," one of these precious documents, which promptly finds its appropriate haven in the waste-paper j basket. Naturally, too, the members of the Conference having had it carefully inculcated that any communications to the press] would constitute a breach of faith or of etiquette, preserve rigid reticence. But one can see that they are chafing badly under what they appreciate as being r perfectly ridiculous restraint inflicted upon them purely for English party pui poses. -