25 FEBRUARY 1911, Page 2

On Monday Mr. Hobhouse made a statement as to some

alterations in connection with the financial arrangements for the current year. The surplus for the year 1909-10 was expected to be £4,300,000, instead of £2,970,000 as was anticipated last July. Certain adjustments were proposed between local and national taxation, and certain concessions were to be made to licence-holders. The principal alteration was that the Government intended to take over the whole of the charges for the pauper old-age pensioners, while, as a. set-off, they would revert to their original plan of retaining the whole of the Land Values duty.