AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3525, 4 October 1921, Page 17

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

THE FEDERAL BUDGET. - MELBOURNE, September 23. The Federal Parliament has opened the members wearing black ties as a tribute to the memory of the late Mr T. J. Evan. MELBOURNE, September 29. In the House of Representatives Sir Joseph Cook delivered the Budget which showed that the revenue for the past year was £65,517,608, being £2,152,903 in excess of the estimate, ’the expenditure out of revenue amounted to £64,624,087, being £4,248,191 less than was estimated, leaving a surplus of £893,521, and an accumulated surplus of £6,108,317. It was estimated that revenue for 1921-22 would amount to £61,787,350, and the expenditure out of revenue was estimated at £64,604,658. The estimated deficiency for the current year was £2,817,108, leaving an estimated accumulated surplus of £3,801,219. It was expected that the aggregate expenditure by the commonwealth this year would be £11,476,682 less than last year. The proposed expenditure includes £7,000,000 for soldiers’ land settlement and £4,000,000 for war service homes. The gross public debt at the end of last year amounted to £401,720,025, including the war debt £359,606,719. Sir Joseph Cook struck an optimistic note, stating that the economic strain was easing and it looked as if Australia was running the financial corner, but unless something was done to relieve the country of the tremendous handicap occasioned by military armaments it might as surely lose in the economic struggle as it had won the military one. He added that some concession and re-adjustment of incidence of taxation was proposed, including relief in case of mining ventures. The income of primary producers would be taxed on a five years’ average basis. The rate of taxation would not be calculated by reference to income during any year prior to 1920-21. It was also proposed to abolish the Immigration tax of 20s on the income of unmarried persons without dependents. MELBOURNE, September 30. Sir Joseph Cook’s Budget proposals include the adoption of a scheme which was recommended by a British Royal Commission for the elimination of double taxation within the Empire. Among other relief proposals is the exemption from income tax to company shareholders in respect to distribution, whether in cash or in shares, of a value representing the profit on the sole capital assets. Dealing with economy, the Budget stated that a convention was being called, with a view to overcoming the duplication of the Federal and State Taxation Departments, which involved great waste and inefficiency. The Estimates include £250,000 for immigration, £200,000 towards the Federal capital, and £420,000 for air service development work. The government of New Guinea under the mandate Rowers is being thoroughly established. PROTECTION AGAINST DUMPING. SYDNEY, September 27. Mr Massy Greene (Minister of Trade and Customs), in addressing the National Club, indicated the underlying principles of the proposed anti dumping legislation. It was intended, he said, to impose additional duties where it was found that foreign manufacturers could dump goods in Australia at prices below the cost of production or below the nrice at which the goods were sold in the home market. Special duties would be imoosed where it was found that foreign countries were taking advantage of the depreciated exchange rates to dump goods in Australia. The Allies would be immune from special duties unless they were using the depreciated exchange to the disadvantage of Australia. The Minister quoted from a letter which was written by a Berlin commercial man, who boasted that Germany was able to export goods at a price against which no other country coulj compete, as a result of which all the unemployed in Germany had been absorbed, the cry now being not for work, but for hands.