NO ELECTION THIS YEAR

Taranaki Daily News, 8 February 1928, Page 2

NO ELECTION THIS YEAR

BRITAIN’S FRANCHISE BILL. INCOME TAX TO REMAIN. (British Official Wireless). Rugb-. Feb. 4. In a speech at Birmingham last ni. ht the Comptroller of the Exchequer (Mr. Winston Churchill) said that obviously there could be no general election in 1928. . The Franchise Bill must be passed into law, and new voters must take their place upon the register. The mere machinery of that process would carry Parliament into the spring or summer of 1929. Mr. Churchill gave no encouragement to those who have lately been expressing hopes that the coming Budget will reveal a reaction in the income tax. The best hope for income tax payers lay in an improvement in national credit, and in the conversion of the immense internal debt to a more favourable rate of interest. He pointed out that a reduction of the local rates that were a harassing burden on production and industry called more urgently for attention, and, if he had the necessarv mo..ey, advice in this direction would round off tho financial p "cy of the present Parliament. By reducing the income tax by 6d and giving additional relief to the smaller class of income taxpayers, the Government had already helped the saving and investing public. By re-estab-lishing the --’d standard the Government had not only helped mercantile and banking interests, but also they had given honest money to workmen and had steadily reduced the eoet of living.