EXPENDITURE. years' purchase of the net annual value; | due to increased prosperity in the country, £1,825,000 ground rents, and £1,680,000 but it was mainly due to that wonderful miscellaneous property. Under all kinds fit of gambling on the Stock Exchange of Death Duties in the year, including which will be fresh in the recollection of the payments to the Local Taxation all of us. In the first three quarters of Account, personalty has paid £11,754,000 the financial year 1894-95 the sales of and realty £2,218,000, of which it is a stamps on the London Stock Exchange rough estimate that about £850,000 amounted to £491,000; in the first three may have been paid by agricultural land. quarters of the year that has just I should like, before I quit this painful, closed they amounted to £1,253,000, though interesting, subject of the Death or an increase of £762,000. I think, Duties to do an act of justice to the right as I shall tell the Committee later on, it hon. Gentleman opposite. When he will be well to be moderate in our estimate introduced the Finance Act of 1894, he under this head for the coming year. stated then, that in his opinion, when ["Hear, hear?"] the Death Duties under the new system came into full working order the produce would be about £13,500,000. The actual produce has been about £14,000,000. I now turn from the Revenue to the [Cheers.] At the time, I confess, I did Expenditure. The right hon. Gentleman not believe him. There were many of opposite estimated the Expenditure at us who said we did not anticipate so £95,981,000. large a yield from the Duty. What the future may have in store for us is another matter on which I will not venture now to express an opinion, but, so far as the last year is concerned, the estimate of the right hon. Gentleman has been more than realised, and I think he is entitled to the credit. [Cheers.] But those advisers who advised him then, and to whom I am sure he will be the first to acknowledge his indebtedness, advise me now that in their opinion, of course other things being equal, we have reached the maximum from the Death Duties, and that future years are much more likely to see a reduction than an increase. GENERAL STAMPS. Since then there have been very large Supplementary Estimates, amounting in all to £2,517,000, to some extent of an abnormal character. There was a Supplementary Estimate, the Committee will remember, of £1,100,000 to the Navy for increased work in the construction of ships; there were Supplementary Estimates of £496,000 for the Army, in order to bring the payments to the Volunteers on account of the Capitation Grant up to date; and of £92,000 in the Civil Service Estimates, in order also to bring up to date the payments to local authorities in lieu of rates on Government property, neither of which, of course, will have to be repeated; and there was a Supplementary Estimate of £120,000 for the Ashanti Expedition. On the other The last head of the Revenue to which hand, there were savings of £734,000. I need refer is the head of General The total Exchequer issues of the year Stamps. The Exchequer receipts from were £97,764,000 an increase of General Stamps have been £7,350,000, an £1,783,000 over the right hon. Gentleincrease over the Estimate of £1,690,000 |man's estimate. Deducting that from and £1,629,000 more than the Receipts of 1894-95. The first quarter, as compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year, produced an increase of £421,000; the second quarter an increase of £630,000; the third quarter an increase of £440,000; while the last quarter only produced an increase of £138,000. I think it will be obvious to the Committee that we have seen, I may say, the best for a time of the Revenue from General Stamps. The increase in that Revenue was, I hope, to some extent Chancellor of the Exchequer. a the Exchequer receipts, there The course, bears upon the Exchequer fractions-was 45 per cent. In 1895 balances. The Exchequer balances on that percentage had been reduced to 1st April 1895, were £6,300,000, rather 11 per cent. ["Hear, hear!"] In 1888 more than a normal balance; at the cor- the percentage of light half-sovereigns responding date this year they had risen was 70 per cent.; in 1895 that percentage to £8,975,000. In the ordinary course had been reduced to 17 per cent. this surplus of £4,210,000 would have ["Hear, hear!"] The proportion of full been retained in the Exchequer for nearly weight sovereigns in the first year was 12 months, and then paid over to the 54, in the second 88; and of the fullNational Debt Commissioners, to be in- weight half-sovereigns 29 in the first vested by them in the reduction of the year, and 821 in the second year. National Debt. Under the Naval Works mean weight of the sovereign and the Act, as I have shown, it will be appro- half-sovereign had been increased priated in another way. It will be paid by an amount which could only be out from time to time for the naval conveyed in decimal fractions, but works to which it is to be devoted, and I will say that it is calculated I have no doubt that in that way the by the authorities that we have Exchequer balances will be reduced added a penny to the mean value of the by this time next year to something sovereign, and 1d. to the mean value like their normal amount. I have of the half-sovereign. The deficiency in now to state, in concluding this value on an estimated coinage of review of the past year, that there will be due to the Local Taxation Fund, £7,367,000—more than has been paid in any one of the last three years, and £353,000 more than was paid in the previous year. I hope the Committee will be of the opinion that this is not an unsatisfactory review of the finances of the past year. [Cheers.] COINAGE. I now turn to the general financial condition of the country. In the first place I should like to say a word upon the question of our coinage. Whether we be monometallists, or whether we be bimetallists, I should think that we are all agreed that our standard coin ought to be of the proper fineness and weight. ["Hear, hear!"] In 1888 my right hon. Friend the present First Lord of Admiralty set apart a considerable fund for the restoration of the gold coinage to its proper weight, which had then fallen, as the Committee are aware, into a very bad state. In April of that year an inspection was made of all gold coins which were received upon a certain day in, I think, some 300 post offices in the country. A similar inspection was made in May last, and I think it will be interesting to the Committee if I inform them of the comparative results of the two inspections. In 1888 it was discovered, out of the gold coins that were tested, that the percentage of light sovereigns-excluding in each case decimal £90,000,000 was calculated in 1888 at £817,675; in 1895 it was calculated at £303,791. Parliament provided about £700,000 for the work of restoring the coinage, on an estimate that all the preVictorian coins and £43,000,000 of Victorian coinage would require to be withdrawn, and I believe we have nearly reached a point at which the regular elimination of light gold coins at the present rate will fully compensate for the deterioration which must be always taking place. This year the cost is calculated to be about £31,000, and that will be provided for out of an unexpended balance, on March 31, of £43,675, and there is still the sum of £250,000, authorised by the Coinage Act of 1893, which has not yet been appropriated. I hope the Committee will consider that this is a satisfactory account of the progress that has been made for the restoration of our coinage. ["Hear, hear!"] NATIONAL DEBT. I turn now to the National Debt. Our total gross liabilities on the 1st of April 1895 were £660,160,000, made up of £586,016,000 Funded Debt, £53,583,000 estimated capital value of terminable annuities, £17,400,000 Unfunded Debt (of which £10,272,000 was in the hands of the public), and £3,161,000 loans raised under the Naval Defence Act, the Barracks Acts, and other Acts. Our total gross liabilities. on On March 31, 1896, stood at in lieu of Exchequer Bills, as the Ex£652,026,000-a reduction of £8,134,000 chequer Bills fall due. ["Hear, hear!"] on the year-composed of Funded Debt, I hope the Committee will agree that £589,147,000; estimated capital value that is not an unsatisfactory account of of terminable annuities, £49,218,000; the position of the National Debt as Unfunded Debt, £9,976,000 (all except compared with last year. ["Hear, £51,000 in the hands of the public); hear!"] But let us consider for a and £3,685,000 raised under special moment what we have done with regard Acts. The reduction of £8,134,000 is to the National Debt in the course of the the largest reduction ever made in any last 40 years. The National Debt-the year except the year 1894-5. I hope Funded Debt-has not been materially my right hon. Friends-the Members for increased since the Crimean war. the University of London and for April 1st 1857, the Debt stood at Liskeard, who objected to the financial £842,000,000. This year it stands proposals of the Naval Works Act-will at £652,000,000. [Cheers.] We have be reasonably satisfied with what has paid off in 39 years £190,000,000 of actually been done. ["Hear, hear!"] debt--[cheers] and £100,000,000 of Now I will explain how this has been that has been paid off in the last 13 effected. Of course, there has, in the years. [Cheers.] Some may think that first place, been the normal reduction in our efforts have been wasted-[An HON. the capital value of the terminable an- MEMBER: "Hear, hear! "and that nuities, but the amount of the Unfunded we should have done better if we had Debt has been reduced by £7,424,000, allowed the money to fructify, as it is while the Funded Debt has been increased said, in the pocket of the taxpayer. by £3,131,000. This is due to the fund-That is not my view. [Cheers.] By ing, by the right hon. Gentleman this self-denying course the Parliament opposite, of а sum of £4,974,000, and the people of this country have which was borrowed on short loan raised up a reserve fund of incalculable by my right hon. Friend the First importance-["hear, hear!"-a reLord of the Admiralty in order to pro- serve fund which, if the time of need vide for paying off those holders of Con- should come when this country should sols who refused to convert. It was bor-again have to fight for its life, would rowed from the National Debt Commis- enable us, without imposing a single sioners at Consols rates of interest, and extra penny of taxation, to raise a couple it has been funded by the creation of of hundred millions for the defence of £4,630,000 of stock. On the other the country, and without imposing, hand, however, through the operation either, an atom more debt upon the of the life annuities, Land Tax redemp- people of that day than our predecessors tion, and similar ways, the Funded Debt bore without a murmur in 1857. [Cheers.] has been reduced by £1,499,000, leaving That is a thing which, I think, this a net increase in the Funded Debt of country may be proud of. [Cheers.] It £3,131,000. As I have said, the Un- is a source of incalculable strength to this funded Debt has been reduced by country, and, although it may sometimes £7,424,000 by the operation I have be necessary, even in time of peace, as it named, and by the remainder of the was necessary in 1885, when I was last sums borrowed on bills and bonds for responsible for the finances of the counthe purposes of the Imperial Defence Act try, to postpone temporarily the operaof 1888, amounting to £2,450,000, tion of the Sinking Fund, yet I trust having been paid off by the appropria- that Parliament will never permanently tion of the Sinking Fund under the depart from the wise and prudent policy Finance Act of 1894. The Unfunded in this matter which it has hitherto purDebt, I think the Committee will be sued. [Cheers.] I have drawn a picglad to hear, now stands at a lower ture-I hope in not too bright colourspoint than it has reached for 21 years. of the present financial condition of the ["Hear, hear!"] The operation of country. I have pointed to increasfunding which I have alluded to has ing receipts from productive taxes; I materially simplified the debt. I hope have dwelt upon the high condition of still further to simplify it by issuing, so the credit of the country; and the far as may be necessary, Treasury Bills steady, I, may say the rapid, diminution Chancellor of the Exchequer. of the Public Debt. I might go on, as large number of those persons belong to my predecessors have often gone on, to the wage-earning classes — ["hear, call the attention of the Committee to hear!"]-for whom, surely, the benefits the improvement in the condition of the of the Savings Banks were intended. great masses of our population, testified ["Hear, hear!"] Now I do not see by the increased consumption of dutiable why the State should undertake the and non-dutiable articles, the comforts business of banking for persons who are and the necessaries of life, and by the perfectly well able to take care of their increased deposits in the Savings Banks. own deposits and to invest them to the But I will not detain the Committee on best possible advantage-["hear, hear!"] that point, because it is unnecessary to dwell upon it. We know it already. - SAVINGS BANKS DEPOSITS. and particularly I do not see why that should be done when, as happens under the present law, the State is compelled to pay 2 per cent. for deposits at short notice at the Savings Banks-a higher rate of interest than would be given by most ordinary banks-and thus, at the present price of those Government in which such deposits But there is one aspect of one part of this question to which I should wish to devote a few minutes, and that is the question of the increased deposits in our securities Savings Banks. ["Hear, hear!"] The must by law be invested, actually deposits in our Savings Banks-in which to incur a loss by receiving them. I include both the Trustee Savings I do not want now to argue Banks and the Post Office Savings Banks whether we should lose a little in order amounted in 1875 to £68,000,000. to encourage thrift among the working In 1885 they had increased to £94,500,000, classes, but I do not see why the Govand in 1895 they had nearly reached ernment should lose in order to enable £144,000,000. ["Hear, hear!"] The depositors who belong to quite another deposits in the Post Office Savings class to obtain a larger interest for their Banks have more than doubled in the money than they can obtain from the last 10 years. In so far as this is due ordinary banks. ["Hear, hear!"] I to the increased thrift and prosperity of do not desire to dwell on the point, but our working classes, it will be a source I have thought it right to call the attenof hearty congratulation to all of us- tion of the Committee to the present ["hear, hear!"]—but I am afraid that, situation, because I think that before if we investigate the matter, we shall long it may become necessary for me- -if find another cause, not quite so satisfac- I have the honour to remain in this tory, to which part of this increase has office-to propose some alterations in the greatly been due. ["Hear, hear!"] existing law which may have the effect I find that the annual percentage of in- of preventing the abuse of the Savings crease in the deposits in the Savings Banks system without discouraging Banks between 1875 and 1893 was 3-4 thrift, and among these alterations may per cent., but between 1893 and 1895 it probably be included a reduction of the had more than doubled. The increase present rate of interest on deposits above was 7.9 per cent., and, of this increase, a certain amount in our banks. ["Hear, it is estimated that about half-or, in hear !"] other words, more than £10,000,000— is due to the operation of the Savings Banks Act of 1893. That Act raised the maximum limit of annual deposit This, Sir, is an important matter, from £30 to £50, and made other but I turn to one which is of very much changes in a similar direction. In 1894, greater importance to the country. We 35,874 persons deposited in one single may nowadays be proud in a measure of sum the maximum annual amount of the enormous revenue which we raise. £50 to a total amount of £1,793,000. But what of our expenditure? ["Hear, In 1895, that number of persons so de- hear!"] I remember, many years ago, positing increased by 35 per cent. to when Mr. Lowe held my present office, 48,500, and deposited in one single sum that he said his great difficulty was to the maximum amount, to a total of know what to do with the millions of £2,425,000. I cannot think that any money that kept pouring in upon him. INCREASE IN EXPENDITURE. Sir, millions of money keep pouring in the Taxes; and I have taken the actual upon me, but the demands keep pouring revenue derived from Customs, Excise, in upon me far faster than the money; Stamps, and House Duty, and also from and if we are right to be proud of our Income Tax, treating that separately on revenue, we ought also to think of our account of the variations according to increased expenditure. ["Hear, hear!"] the rate in the pound. In order to allow I know perfectly well that increase in for changes in taxation, I have taken our expenditure is a necessity. The ex- the actual produce of the four heads of penditure of this country must be in- taxation I have named in the first of the creased correspondingly with the increas- selected years. I have analysed the ing wants of civilisation, with the natural amount of taxation imposed and remitted expansion of our Empire, and I am between that year and the next selected bound to add-in consequence of the year, and then I have either added to enormous armaments of foreign countries. the produce of the first year the net But the grave question that I think this amounts imposed in the interval or deHouse and this country ought to con- ducted from it the net amounts remitted sider is this-whether our expenditure is in the interval. This should give the not now increasing faster than our revenue which would have been received capacity to bear it. ["Hear, hear!"] in the second of the selected years had In 1881, Mr. Gladstone called the atten- the produce of the taxes remained tion of Parliament to this matter. He stationary, and, therefore, the compariinstituted a comparison, going as far son of that sum with the actual produce will back as the year 1842. He took the show whether there has been progression annual percentage of increase of popula- or retrogression-in other words, elastion, of revenue, and of expenditure in ticity or contraction of the revenue. I certain periods. The first period was will not trouble the Committee with any from 1842 to 1858. He calculated that more than the broad results of the comthe population had increased in that parison drawn on the basis I have detime by one-third per cent. per annum ; scribed, though I shall be glad to lay a that the revenue had increased by 13 per memorandum on the subject on the cent. per annum; and that the expen- Table of the House with detailed figures. diture had increased by 2 per cent. per ["Hear, hear!"] The broad results, annum. Then Mr. Gladstone took the then, are these. The second decennial years from 1859 to 1873, and calculated period compares favourably, from that in that period the population in- revenue point of view, with the first creased 1 per cent. per annum, the decennial period. The four heads of revenue by 3 per cent., and the expen- taxation which I have named showed in diture by 1 per cent. per annum. the period between 1875-85 a decline to He next took the period from 1874 to the extent of 3.93 per cent., while the 1877, in which he calculated the increase produce per penny of the Income Tax of population at 1 per cent. per annum, showed an increase of only 3.23 per the revenue at 1 per cent. per annum, cent. In the second decennial period, and the expenditure at 31 per cent. per 1885 to 1895, the produce of the four The right hon. Gentleman op- taxes showed an increase of 21.26 per posite (Sir W. Harcourt) will remember cent. ; and the produce of the Income Tax that he entered into a similar calculation an increase of 11.46 per cent. in 1886 in regard to the 10 previous would seem to be a rather favourable reyears. I have extended my survey to sult with regard to the elasticity of taxathe last 20 years, ending with the year tion in the last decennial period, but I just concluded-that is to say, for each would remind the Committee that it is of the three financial years 1875-76, largely due to the results of the year 1885-86, and 1895-96. I have taken that has just closed. If, however, we the normal expenditure excluding any- turn to the expenditure under the heads thing like a War Vote or Vote I have named-Army, Navy, Civil of Credit, under the six following Service, Education, Grants in Aid, and heads-Army, Navy, Civil Service, Collection-we shall find that, while in Education, Grants in Aid of Local the first decennial period the expendiTaxation, and Cost of Collecting ture (omitting the debt charge and Votes annum. Chancellor of the Exchequer. a That |