BRITAIN'S TAXATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14283, 4 August 1908, Page 5

BRITAIN'S TAXATION

A FORECAST FOR. NEXT YEAR. FREETRADE IN JEOPARDY. I Press Association—By Telegraph-Copyright. LONDON, August 3. e August 3, at 11.40 p.m.) :1 The Spectator estimates that the new taxation required in 1909 will be at least a £16.000,000. . s The paper says it will be impossible ft to raise that sum without jeopardisi]]* f Freetrade, and it fears that the voters J>i] not stick to Freetrade when tho - tariff reformers assure them that the fiscal «mba«assinents mil altogether vanish-if the country will permit the tariff experiment to be tried. JnJt T? of , a s on June 19 Mi Asquith said ho had never believed mat '. ho issue of tariff reform had been settled lor a generation at tho 1906 election. It was not much talked of in tho House, it was little written of in'the press, but'in , tho constituencies it was a ceaseless propar The tariff reformers were boßinnins to e recover thcu- stimulus under the weekly . (tewotte iii the Board of Trade return-. J-ney were pinning their faith on the declining trade common to us and to almost every country in tho world. When the 7, \, trade WM Prosperous, who fared . better than we? When the world's trade , was slack, who suffered less? j, . 'In my opinion," said Mr'Asquith, "it is every whit as necessary now as five or ttu-ec years ago that the case for Freetrade should bo presented in its broad and general » aspects and m its application to particular . industries and districts, a.nd'with special _ reference to the chameleon colourings, the evcr-shift,ng variations of the fallacies always at the service of tariff reform. The less .prosperous your and other peoples trade becomes the more need you have for a cheap and unimpeded inflow of materials tor food and industry." Mr Asquith was reminded of Lemoino tho professional discoverer of the valuable secret of artificial diamonds. Ho was allowed timo to give a great demonstration of. its efficiency. Tho time expired; tho discoverer failed to appear, and left behind him a formula not on a half-sheet of notonapcr, but in an envelope— not a . diamond, but a formula. Mr Balfour had not vet committed himself clearly to the Protective side. Ho • had a formula of his own—a lot of small [ duties on various articles, but not on hops. This was the mild and diluted form of tariff Reform authorised from the orthodox version. With which of the Protectionist countries would England liko to change places? America, which lias just emerged from a financial crisis? or Germany, which had ■ suspended its sinkmg fund and was borrowing largo sums year bv year to defray | its annual and, normal expenditure?