THE BUDGET.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5669, 31 May 1879, Page 3

THE BUDGET.

(Erom the European Mail.)

This annually recurring vexation gave rise to considerable surmise, as it usually does; before the Chancellor of the Exchequer unbosomed himself to the world as to the means by which he proposed to meet the wants of the revenue. In some quarters it was thought he would double the: tobacco tax, because, as that tax stands, .the manufacturer gets the best of it. Last year the Chancellor put a ; f d. an ounce ,on tobacco, and, the retail dealer immediately mulcted the consumer in a id,, so that the latter would not have been affected further if the duty had been increased by a Id. Then sugar trembled in the balance, and those interested in that article feared that it might be fiscally affected, but as matters turned out sugar was allowed to go free. The tea interest, however, felt so . certain that, tea would be subjected to a fresh impost that a large amount was • cleared a few days before the Chancellor made his statement. It was no slight consolation, then, to' : the commercial community to find that when the Budget was unfolded all it proposed to do in the way of additional taxation was to .add; 2d;, per lb. to the dutyl on cigars and to raise the duty upon the new composition called ” cocoa paste ” to a level with the duty, upon cocoa. As, therefore, nothing disorganises the commercial system so much as alterations in the tariffs, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is'to be congratulated on what’has been regarded as a tolerably satisfactory Budget. We need not go into details which the Chancellor laid before the House in his luminous statement, nor with the causes which in some respects have disappointed the estimates which he- formed. of the revenue of 1878-79. We may say generally that they are attributed to the depletion of the consuming power of the country consequent .upon the . depression of trade. ...But though the Estimates of last year -have upon some items been disappointed, . the revenue has to a considerable extent been recouped by an excess of income upon others. The. Chancellor of the Exchequer has also been befriended this year, as he 'was,.last, year, by.the “ scare” of an anticipated increase of duties upon tea arid spirits, Large quantifies of these commodities,as already noted, have been, taken, out of bond under the influence of that fear, and have thus helped to reduce the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s expected deficit of a million to a lower figure., Tlie abstract, of the balance between the revenue and the expenditure for the year 1878-9 comes to this, that the income of the country, stands: in a much more favorable position than seemed to be, possible three or four weeks ago, and that if it were not for the liabilities occasioned by extraordinary expenditure the prospect of Pur finances, in spite of the temporary decay of the national prosperity, would be hopeful. Warned by the experience of last year, Sir Stafford Northcote: has. been , careful to place his estimate of; revenue at a lower! sum than that on which he reckoned when he'made his financial.atatement in 1878.... He expects that it will yield only a little more than.eightythfee millions, arid that the expenditure will be something over 'eighty-one millions.We give these figures iri round numbers, but on the balance between revenue and expenditure there will be a surplus of one million nine hundred thousand pounds. To a great extent this surplus has been already eaten up by the vote of a million and, a half for the Zulu war, and it is, of course, impossible to say what will be the full cost of, the war before it is brought to an end., ‘