To meet this rather formidable sum, Sir Stafford Northcote's proposals
are simple. He adds 2d. to the Income-tax, which ought, he says, to produce about £3,000,000 within the year, and £600,000 more in the next financial year ; and puts 4d. extra per pound on tobacco, from which he expects to get £750,000 within the year. Thus he provides within the year for £3,750,000, leaving the £600,000 of the additional Income-tax which will come in during the next financial year, against the debt left over for next year, after which there will still be, at least a million, and possibly a million and a half, unprovided for, which must be added, for the present, to the floating debt. Besides these proposals, he adds 50 per cent. to the dog-tax, making each dog licence 7s. 6d. instead of 5s., and this will yield him, he calculates, £100,000 ; but against this he grants certain remissions in the mode of levying the inhabited house-duty, and in admitting deductions for depreciation of machinery from the assessments of the Income-tax of those who have property in machines. The remissions will about balance the extra dog- tax. Puppies also of more than two months old are for the future to pay the dog-tax. The Budget is perfectly simple, but not very courageous.
