ENGLISH POLITICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1163, 15 June 1894, Page 34

ENGLISH POLITICS.

London, June 8. At a Conference of the Radical Party, it was urged that tho House of Lords should be abolished or that the Government should legislate for tho remission of Bills direct to tho Crown after tho Lords had rejected them. Sir Charles Dilko moved that the franchise should rest on personal fitness alone, that the constituencies should pay election expenses, and that Parliament should pay its members. The resolution was carried. Tho Pall Mall Gazette declares that tho Chancellor's proposal to levy death duties on colonial estates without first obtaining the assent of the colonies is dangerous and revolutionary. Brisbane, Juno 7. The Agent-General for the colony in London has been instructed to join in the protest against Sir W. V. Harcourt's death duty proposals. Adelaide, June 8. Tho Agent-General has been instructed to protest against tho death duties. JjOndon, Juno 7. Pending tho action of the colonies in tho matter, Sir George Baden-Powell has withdrawn his amendment in the House of Commons, attacking tho death duties. The Daily Telegraph, in an article on the subject, advises Sir William Harcourt to adopt a reciprocal course, and exempt thoße colonies which do not exact an equivalent duty on property in Great Britain. Foreign countries are protesting against the British estate duties. Speaking in the House of Commons, Sir W. V. Harcourt said the objections taken by the colonies to the estate duties were founded on a misapprehension. He declared that there was no intention to impose any tax on the colonies, and that the only question was whether personal property in the colonies belonging to persons domiciled in England, and subject to legacy and succession duties, should be subject also to estate duty. The views of the colonies on the matter would, ho promised, receive the careful consideration of tho Government. London, June 8. Mr Perceval O'Connor (on behalf of New South Wales), Sir E. Herbert and Sir Charles Tupper have been appointed a committeo to draft a strong protest against the colonies having to pay estate duties twice. They will point out that the proposal is calculated to seriously interfere with the investment of British capital, and will also remind Sir Vernon Harcourt that Great Britain has not asked tho colonies to share the expenses in connection with the Imperial Naval Defence, although at the Conference in 1887 the colonies expressed themselves willing to contribute. London, June 9. Speaking at a political banquet, the Marquis of Salisbury declared that Sir W. V. Harcourt's Budget had created the first serious difference between Australia and England. Owing to tho proposals in the Budget, a number of very large land-owners are considering the question of breaking up their estates. Tho Duke of Westminster is selling his Pimlico freeholds. London, June 11. The Times says tho Budget puts the colonial governments in the position of foreigners and restricts British investments. Tho collecting of taxes twice on the same property will be a blow at the unity of the Empire. Colonists will consider the legacy and succession duties, says the paper, a survival of the days prior to self-government. Such things where they exist have hitherto been only tolerated because they have become almost inoperative.