The finance of the past year thus arranged, Mr. Lowe
turns to the future. Ile expects that the revenue for 1870-71 will be :— The finance of the past year thus arranged, Mr. Lowe turns to the future. Ile expects that the revenue for 1870-71 will be :—
Customs £21,660,000 Excise 21,640,000 Stamps 8,700,000 Income Tax 7,600,000 Taxes 2,850,000 Post Office 4,900,000 Telegraphs 675,000 Crown Lands 385,000 Miscellaneous 3,050,000
Total Revenue £7 , 45 0 ,0 0 0 —while the expenditure will be,—
Interest on Dobt £26,650,000 Consolidated Fund Charges 1,820,000 Army 12,976,000 Navy 9,251,000 Civil Service 9,990,000 Revenue Departments 4,960,000 Packet Service 1,107,000 Telegraph Service 860,000 Total Expenditure £67,113,000
thus leaving a surplus of £4,337,000. After stating somewhat at length what he did not intend to do with this surplus—as, for in- stance, to change the malt tax into a beer duty—and tantalizing his audience with some trifling remissions, such as the licences on foot-pedlars, soap-makers, card-sellers, paper-makers, and so on ; after proposing a change in the railway tax, which is now 5 per cent. on receipts from passengers, but will henceforward be 1 per cent. on gross receipts ; and after advising the Committee to sub- stitute a licence to early arms for the licence to kill game, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at last opened his wallet. lie should reduce the income-tax to 4d., thus sacrificing £1,250,000, and halve the sugar duties at a cost of £2,350,000. We have dis- cussed the Budget elsewhere, and have only to say here that every- body expresses content in a disappointed sort of way. They wanted a dramatic effect.
