MR. BUTLER'S BUDGET SIR,—Mr. Butler asserts that he has introduced
new taxation in his Budget which spreads the burden among all individual citizens, but is this true?
He does nothing about the £2,000 million of waste expenditure incurred on drink, betting and tobacco, neither does he clearly state what additional revenue he expects from the taxes that he is now imposing.
Granted that his intention is to enforce re° duced expenditure from all of our citizens, does he consider that he is justified in 'exclud• ing intoxicants, pool and other betting, and tobacco, all of which are waste expenditure?
The latest estimate is that the £ is spent on 6s. 6d. for food, housing, fuel and light; 2s. 8d• for clothing; Is. I Id. for household goods; Is. 7d. for tobacco; Is. 6d. for alcohol; and other spending, 4s. 5d., which includes betting. So the present tobacco, alPohol and betting expenditure exceeds that of housing, clothing or household goods, all of which are to be increasingly taxed. The £2,000 million, which are all for unnecessary expenditure, go un' touched. Why this obvious exception? In my own city (the most drunken in the provinces) no less than 28s. 6d. a week is spent on alcohol alone by every family, and this in' eludes children and abstainers.
Our citizens expect that the f will be saved from further inflation, but this will not be. achieved by the present Budget. All that it will ultimately effect is a demand' for increased wages. Mr. Butler must dig deeper, and attack all unwise spending.—Yours faithfully,
Newcastle upon Tyne 2
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