FORCED BY PEOPLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 64, 13 October 1930, Page 5

FORCED BY PEOPLE.

INCREASED EXPENDITURE The rise in the expenditure of the Government and of local authorities in recent years is one of the principal causes of the decline in our nialtional prosperity. Because of the burden placed l>3' taxation and rates on our industries, it is becoming more and more difficult for ,us to sell our goods in competition with less extravagant and more industrious peoples, 'said Mr. Seabury Burdett-Coutts, addressing ratepayers at Wadhurst, Sussex, reports the 'Daily Mail'. For a time wo may bo able to continue the present system, thanks to the vast accumulation of our Victorian ancestors, but the day is approaching when those savings will be exhausted- When that day conies—and come it will within the next decade unless a halt is called to public extravagance —then all classes of the population will either have to accept a much lower standard df living or starve. The estimated expend'turo of the Sussex County Council in 1930-31 for all services exceeds the expenditure on similar services in the standard year 1928-29 by the prodgbus figure of £135,000, equivalent to a rate o!f> about Is 5d in the £. The County Council is not wholly responsible for this increase. Successive (Governments, and the present Government in* particular, have ilorced expenditure on local authorities by making grants dependent on tho quality of the ser. vices provided-