SOUTH AFRICA

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 21

SOUTH AFRICA

AN APPALLING THREAT. CAPETOWN, April 30. Reports from Maieking suggest the possibility of an invasion of locusts on an appalling scale from the Kalahari Desert. Travellers report that an enormous mass of insects 300 miles long is moving forward. The wells are .choked, vast areas are denuded of grain, and the natives are forced to live on wild melons. TRIBAL BATTLE. CAPETOWN, April 30. There was a serious native tribal battle in the Greytown district, 20 persons being killed. The police are hurrying to the scene, but hostilities have ceased. CAPE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. CAPETOWN, May 1. In the Cape Provincial Council the Administrator announced that, owing to the deficit, due to a reduction in the Union Government’s subsidy and other causes, he proposed to levy a provincial income tax on incomes above £l2O. The motorcar and amusement taxes would be doubled and licenses increased. The income tax proceeds would be appropriated for education purposes. SOUTH AFRICAN BUDGET. CAPETOWN, May 6. In the course of the Budget speech, the Minister of Einance showed that the estimated expenditure was £28,250,000, a decrease of £1,500,000 compared with the previous year. The accumulated deficit at the end of March was £1,250,000, which was better than was anticipated. He proposed to carry the deficit forward. A deficit for the new financial year was anticipated, being estimated at £BOO,OOO. He did not propose to interfere with the public service salaries, but a thorough reorganisation was necessary. The Government would increase taxation as little as possible. Adjustments would be made in tobacco and cigarette duties. The Post Office finances were improving, and if this continued one of the first measures would be a return to the penny postage. He intended to re-impose the original duty of 25 per cent, on blankets, Tugs, and certain articles and material. The' Union industries would be placed on the free list, and it was also intended to introduce a long overdue reform —uniform taxation in respect to estate duties, coupled with succession duties, the former ranging from one per cent, on estates valued at £2OOO to 16 per cent, on estates valued at £750,000, and the latter from 2 per cent, to 10 per cent, according to the degree of relationship. The final estimated deficit was £400,000.