IMPERIAL WAR BUDGET.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 245, 19 November 1914, Page 8

IMPERIAL WAR BUDGET.

HUGE COST OF THE WAR. CHANCELLOE ANNOUNCES NEW TAXATION. LONDON, November 17. Mr Lloyd George, speaking in the House of Commons, said that he estimated the year's expenditure would be £206,924,000, in addition to £328,443,000 war expenditure. It was probable that there would be* a deficiency of £339,571,000. The first year of the war, he said, would cost at least #►150,000,000. The largest sum Britain had previously spent on a war in a single year was £71,000,000. The beer duty would have to be increased by one half-penny per halfpint, and the tea dnty increas'ed by 3d. There would be no extra tax on whisky.

The British expenditure was higher in proportion than any other country. Already they had at least two million men under arms, and he confidently anticipated that there would be three .millions within a few months. The separation allowance alone would then cost £65,000,000 annually. The war finance proposals included a double income-tax, but this year it would be collected only on one-third of the income.

During the war industries would be enormously occupied. The country would then have to face the most serious industrial situation it had ever been confronted with. They would have exhausted an enormous amount of the world's .capital, and British purchases at Home and abroad would be crippled. Therefore, it was desirable to raise as much taxation as possible during trade inflation. The Government would not levy taxation which would interfere with any productive industry. "We are fighting an enemy which, unless subjected to a smashing defeat, will not submit to terms which we could prudently accept.'' He hoped the chief result would be an all-round reduction in armaments.

Mr Lloyd George also said that the tea duty would produce-£32,000,000 next year, and the beer duty £17,000,000. The country's income at present was £2,300,000,000, whereas in Napoleon J s time it was .£250,000,000. If they rose to the heroic level of their ancestors, they would now be raising £700,000,000, annually.

He was generally cheered in making his speech. The resolution empowering the new taxation was carried. The cost of the war to Britain last week was £12,755,000, the highest on record.