INCOME TAX QUESTION.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12750, 23 March 1910, Page 2

INCOME TAX QUESTION.

HANK OF ENGLAND REFUNDING. ELECTION PREPARATIONS. THE WRITING ON THE WALL. [Press Association — Copyright.] London, March 21. The Bank of England, in view of the Government's decision not to secure legislative sanction for the collection of tho income tax, has informed tho London County Council that the bank intends to refund the amount deducted for the tax upon application by the owners of stock. The announcement refers to £74,500,000 worth of County Council stock, whereon the income tax totals £120,000. The Council hitherto has held this at the Government's disposal, but the Treasury never applied for it, Tho Council has agreed to the bank's decision. Newspapers of both parties refer to the eager preparations for the genera] election, which some now anticipate will take place in April. Mr Keir Hardie, M.P., speaking at Merthyr Tydvil, described Mr Asquith's speech at Oxford as anqther "bellyful of east wind." He said he believed that the Government was "riding for a fall" with its veto and House of Lords reform proposals. Those who anticipate a change of government shortly, involving the Premier leaving his official residence in Downing street, notice that his former : residence in Cavendish Square is being cleaned and prepared for occupation. Many questions have been asked in the Hoiks of Commons upon various phases of the financial position, ; J»ut Mr Asquith'has refused all information except that at present tHe Government does not intend having two -Budgets rolled into one. He said that ' Ministers still intended to pass the Budget before the spring recess. A Junior Imperial .• Constitutional League has been formed, with Viscount Castlereagh as President. There I are already fifty branches, and the movement is still spreading. Newspapers report that Messrs O'Brien and Healy, Irish- Ms.P., recently paid a visit to Mr Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir O'Brien writes that h© has good reason to hope that tho extra spirit duties, the burdens on the land,- and the proposed general revaluation would be dropped, otherwise the Budget and its authors and accomplices would be doomed. The "Star" asks why the Premier and Mr Redmond, for tho Irish Nationalists, do not come to an arrangement immediately. The "Westminster Gazette" is 'Unsympathetic towards any arrangement with the Irish Nationalists.