INDICATIONS OF IMPROVEMENT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13947, 30 April 1909, Page 2

INDICATIONS OF IMPROVEMENT.

By Electric Telegraph.— Copyright. (Received April 30. 8 a.m.) LONDON, April 29. Mr. Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the ] Exchequer, has issued a White Paper embodying the facts usually contained in the first part of the Budget, show\~<r the revenue for 1908r1909 to amount to £150,578,000. He estimates therei venue for 1909-1910 at £148,390,000, and the expenditure at £164,152,000, leaving a Budget deficit of £762,000. The decrease in expected revenue was due to the necessity of estimating a reduction of a million sterling in the Customs duty, and a million and^ a half in the excise duty compared with 1908-1909. The amount of incomes assessed for income tax was 1040 millions. A tax of a penny in tne pound produced £2,833,000. The national debt amounted to £754,121,309. j The diminution in foreign trade in 1908 was 114 millions sterling, whereof a third to a half was accounted for by a general fall in prices below the 1907 1 level. It is impossible, he added, to prophesy an immediate rapid recovery, hut there are some indications that foreign trade is beginning to improve. The death duties amounted to £18,370,000.