IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13288, 17 May 1907, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

THE BASIS OF TAXATION.

Copyright-—Mav 15, 8.43 a.m. LONDON, May 15.

Mr Austen Chamberlain's amendment to the Finance Bill, urging a broader basis of taxation, was rejected by 376 to 108. Mr Balfour warned the House that they were dealing with a world which was determinedly striving to divert commerce and industries" from their natural channels to our disadvantage. He contended that if there were sufficient grounds for imposing duties for great national and Imperial objects, the mere fact that- the duties possibly involved some small protective effect was no reason for rejecting them.

Mr Asquitli replied that we had not reached anything like' the possible limit of taxation "on a free-trade basis. He contended that the basis of our taxation was broader than any other, and consisted of taxes on necessaries, next the simpler luxuries, and finally property. He defended the fiscal liberty of the Motherland and the colonies. H-e was sure that after the frank and cordial interchange of opinion the members of the Colonial Conference .rose from the table better friends than when they sat down. The Bill was* then read a second time. A Bill, bringing all laundries under the Factories and Workshops Act was read a second time in the House of Lords. The vacancy created by the resignation of Mr C. E. Hambro, member for Wimbledon, lias been filled by the election of Mr Henry Chaplin, who received .10,263 votes. Mr Russell (Liberal and Woman Suffragist), hi-: opponent, received 3299 votes. Mr T. W. Russell, member of the House of Commons for Tyrone 'South, has succeeded Sir Horace Plunketi- as Vice-presi-dent of the Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.