LONDON PRESS OPINIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19931, 27 April 1928, Page 11

LONDON PRESS OPINIONS.

IMPORTANCE OF RATING. BUDGETTING FOR INDUSTRY. OBJECT OF TAX ON PETROL. Australian end N.Z. Press Association. LONDON, April 25. The newspapers are practically unanimous in describing the Budget presented in the House of Commons to-day by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Winston Churchill, as an industrial Budget, in conformity with present needs. The Daily Telegraph says the deplorable plight of the basic industries has compelled the Government to take up one of the most urgent problems of the day, namely the revision of the relationship between national and local taxation. It has recognised that this can only be done in stages, the first of which has been entered upon with a due sense of the gravity of its far-reaching and immense reactions. This, says the Telegraph, is the real heart of the Budget, and it is hoped the British democracy will grasp the essential purpose 'of the scheme. "If a heated discussion arises, as it may, on the petrol tax," the paper says, "let the disputants remember that its primary object is to help to create a pool for the relief of sorely smitten industries, and a reduction in the number of the unememployed." The Daily Express says: "The heavy impost of 4d per gallon on petrol may not bo oppressive owing to the present low price, but should petrol rise it will be burdensome, therefore it is of the utmost importance that tho Government should use its power as the majority stockholder in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to maintain the price at its present level." The Morning Post says: "Mr. Churchill realises that his financial policy must bo made to suit industry, not vice versa. It is known that out of the now chronic population of 1,000,000 unemployed, 900,000 are from the staple industries which formerly maintained the greatness and strength of the country." The Daily Herald, the Labour paper, congratulates the Government on awakening to the plight of the necessitous areas, but questions Mr. Churchill's rating scheme. It says the tax on petrol will affect not only the private motorist, but the growing national "transport services. It complains that the Budget will mean a general increase,, in the cost of living, while the landowners will benefit enormously from rate-free farms.