Britain’s War-Burdened Budget
The terrible drain upon the British treasury, due in large degree to the Boer war, is leading the government to adopt new methods for increasing its revenue. Of the new budget, recently brought forward, the Outlook says:— The sensational feature in the recommendations of the chancellor of the exchequer, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, is that proposing that a tax of fivepence per hundredweight be imposed on flour and meal, and of threepence per hundredweight on imported wheat and all other imported grain. Sir Michael denies that this placing of duties on wheat and flour violates the principles of free trade, or will increase the cost of food. The duties, he asserts, have been recklessly abandoned, and their remission has not reduced the price of food. This tax proposal is expected to excite strong opposition. The total expenditure for the year 1902-03 is placed at about £175,000,000, £13,000,000 less than for the previous year. The total deficit for the present year is about £42,000,000, a large part, of course, being due to war expenditure. In addition to the tax on wheat and flour, from which, as proposed, Canada and Australia are not exempt, there is an increase of a penny in the pound on the income tax, but no increase in the duties on wine, beer, tobacco, tea, or sugar. What a blessed time it will be when “the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ”! Then the burdens that result from sin will be known no more.”