Mr. Leonard Courtney addressect his constituents at Lan- .
drake on Wednesday evening. Discussing the figures as to national expenditure, he re minded his hearers that in the year 1868 Mr. Bright• said a Government deserved a vote of ceiiaure -which could suggest an expenditure of seventy millions .a year; a. sum seventeen and a half millions below last year's expenditure. He held it was an advantage to get money by taxation from few instead of many articles, because nearly every new article taxed required new machinery for its collection. To the suggested taxes on sugar and corn Mr. Courtney,' we are glad to see, offered an uncompromising hostility, declaring they must fight most severely against any suggestions of change which were class suggestions. After admitting in the main the justice of the present system, Mr. Cciurtney wound up with a characteristic proposal that the deficit should be met by a fractional rise in the Income-tax, —say * per cent., which would make a considerable addition " as well as provide a good exercise in arithmetic." Mr. Courtney, as a high Wrangler and champion of proportional representation, is perhaps inclined to minimise the average man's dislike of fraetions.
Previous page
