The Treasury has pulled up the Metropolitan Board very sharply.
In a letter from the Secretary, Mr. Leonard Courtney,. my Lords inform the Chairman that the coal and wine duties, which expire in 1889, cannot be regranted without urgent necessity, the former duty amounting to 7 per cent, ad valorem at the place of sale on an article of the first necessity. The- Treasury observe that the Metropolitan Board now owe 219,000,000, involving a total charge of 21,000,000 a year, and that they are increasing this debt at the rate of 28,000,000 in five years, without ever defining the limit within which they think indebtedness safe, or the proportion debt should bear to the property charged with it. The Treasury perceive clearly that a Board like the Metropolitan will be inclined to spend to justify its own existence, but hold that it should use its powers of borrow- ing with discretion, and with some consideration for the wants of the next generation. My Lords, therefore, decline to sanc- tion the new expenditure proposed, amounting to 213,000,000„ until their requirements, essential to sound finance, have been complied with. The warning—for it is only a warning—is a wise one ; but it is difficult to imagine how London is to be improved without money, or what is to be the substitute for the coal duties. Rates on houses are too high already, and we cannot tax incomes for municipal purposes, while a special liquor duty of adequate amount would impede all traffic.
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