TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE BUDGET. THE Budget is a very tame one. There was a great increase of Revenue over the estimate in the past year—no less than £3,470,000— but there can, unfor- tunately, be no decrease of taxation. The reason, when we press the matter home, is that the condition of foreign affairs makes it necessary to continue to spend larger and larger sums on our naval and military forces, and to keep hold of a. Revenue which shall be able to meet all emergencies. In the present condition of the world it -would be little short of madness to do anything which would render us less, and not more, prepared to meet the dangers of war. But though the Chancellor of the Exchequer cannot take off taxes, he is enabled by the huge proportions of the national Revenue, which he estimates will, for Imperial purposes, next year reach £103,360,000, to spend largely on various extra objects. After taking account of the various Estimates for the coming year, which include, besides grants for the Army and Navy equal to those of last year an extra sum for education, and also the complete sum promised for the relief of agricul- tural rates, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach calculates that he will have an estimated Surplus of £1,569,000. His estimated Revenue is, as we have said, £103,360,000 and his estimated ordinary Expenditure is £101,791,000. The usual plan would be for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to devote this sum to the relief of taxation. Believing, and as we think rightly, that such a course would this year be impossible, he devotes his Surplus to the following objects. In the first place he is going to give another half-million to the Navy. This extra grant he bases upon the statement made by the First Lord of the Admiralty, which was to the effect that if the balance of naval power were to be disturbed by abnormal pro- grammes in other quarters, the Government would have to reconsider their own naval programme. The con- templated circumstances having arisen the Government con- sidered the extra grant necessary. That theyhave been wise in this matter we cannot doubt. If the Government had thought an extra £5,000,000 instead of £500,000 necessary to secure our naval predominance, the country would have cheerfully voted the money. The next item on which the Government proposes to spend its Surplus is an expendi- ture of £200,000 in increasing the garrisons in South Africa. On this point we do not wish to dwell at length, for the very sufficient reason that we think too much has been said already. We hold the expenditure necessary, but we are most anxious that it should not be twisted, as Sir William Harcourt endeavoured to twist it, into an act of aggression on the Transvaal. Every one admits—even Sir William Harcourt—that the Convention must be maintained in its integrity. But it is no secret that the Boers—we do not blame them—dislike the Convention, and would be glad to be free from it. Under these circum- stances it may unhappily become necessary to deliver some- thing in the nature of an ultimatum to the Boers. But what result would an ultimatum have on the Boers if they knew that they were twice or three times as strong in the matter of artillery as we were ? To try to take a strong line with the Boers without force to back that strong line would be to encourage the Boer leaders to plunge South Africa into war. These two items reduce the Surplus to £869,000,—a sum insufficient to reduce taxation. Of this sum Sir Michael Hicks-Beach proposes to spend £366,000 in Post Office reforms. The country districts are to have increased facilities until every house and cottage in the United Kingdom will have a regular delivery. Next, telegrams are to be delivered free within three miles, and after that only 3d. a mile is to be charged. Again, the guarantee required for a new telegraph-office is to be reduced by one-half; the parcels-post rates are to be reduced—in future the rate after the first pound, which is to remain lt,d., is to be id. per pound—letters, samples, and books are in future all to go for Id. up to 4 oz., and after that at ?,.d. per 2 oz.; and finally, if the Postal Union agrees, foreign letters are only to cost 2d. each. The cost of these reforms will still leave the Chancellor of the Exchequer with half a million over. This sum he intends to allot to certain improvements in Scotch and Irish education, to the entertainment of Colonial and foreign guests at the Jubilee, and to fulfilling the duty of every wise man, whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer of his own or of the nation's purse,—i.e., the duty of providing a small margin for contingencies.
As we have said, the Budget is a tame one. It must not be forgotten, however, that it is not strictly true to say that there is no remission of taxation. In reality the dues levied by the Post Office are taxes. It is true that services are rendered for them, but this does not alter the fact. Services are rendered for the Income-tax, for what are naval and military protection, Judges and Courts of Justice, main roads and police, but services ? Hence, as we have said, to reduce the sums we pay for our letters, our parcels, and our telegrams, is to reduce taxation quite as much as to reduce the duty on carriages or tobacco. If one does not send letters, one does not benefit no doubt, but also if one does not use a carriage or smoke, one doea not benefit by a reduction in those taxes. That the class who will be relieved by the Post Office reductions is a class which deserves help we do not doubt. The class to which postage and telegram charges are a real item in their expenditure is the educated lower middle class,— the people whose incomes are between £150 and £300 a year. A curate with £250 a year, and a family of grown-up daughters, all letter-writers, finds it extremely hard to cut down his postage, and yet cannot really afford to spend £5 a year on stamps, parcels, and telegrams. No doubt he will not get a very great amount of relief under the new scale, but even that little will be appreciated. The notion that men who are pinched do not value small benefits, as Sir William Harcourt has always argued in regard to the Agricultural Rating Bill, is, as his party found, a pure delusion. A poor clergyman in a country district may not receive six telegrams a year, but the knowledge that in future he will not have to pay on each occasion a shilling porterage will be by no means unpleasant. The only criticism as to the postage relief which we feel inclined to make is to express regret that it was not found possible to reduce the parcels-post rates yet lower. We presume, however, that to do so. would have been to carry at an actual loss owing to the arrangements with the railways. On the whole, then, the Budget is not so unpopular a one as it seems at first sight. As he could not take off taxation, it was a distinctly happy thought on the part of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach to add to the cheapness and facility of the Post Office.
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