GERMANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2552, 13 July 1909, Page 5

GERMANY.

THE TAXATION J3ILLS PASSED. PRINCE BULOW’sItETIREMENT. United Press Association—Copyright (Received July 12, p.m.) BERLIN, July 12. . Herr Von Bethmann Hollweg (Minister of the Interior) declared in the Reichstag that the federated Governments considered that the necessity of placing the Imperial finances on a sound basis out-weighed the defects which they were obliged to take with tho bargain which. had been made. The -House -passed the various Taxation Bills through their third reading stages.

Tho speakers of most parties -paid a sympathetic tribute to the retiring Chancellor (P-rince Bulow).

The Social Democrats declared that Germany was moving in the direction of financial collapse unless the expenditure on the army and navy was restricted. The National Liberals, commenting on the Prussian Poles’ adhesion to tho new majority, emphasised the Poles’ desire to be rid of Prince Bulow. The Radical People’s Party eulogised Prince Bulow as a constitutional statesman. .

[The position of Prince Bulow as Imperial Chancellor was recently rendered unstable by the financial dissensions in the Bloc. It was cabled on June 29: The “North German uazette” states that the Chancellor, Prince Bulow, has irrevocably resolved t-o resign immediatelv after the question of finance reform is settled. Tho “Frankfurter Zeitung” declares that Prince Bulow declines to descend t-o the position of business manager, of the Conservative party (formerly the principal constituent of the Bloc), which has knowingly subjected him to personal and political defeat.] Writing on May 27, Dust prior to the open breach in the Bloc between the Liberals and the Conservatives (who have allied themselves with the Catholic Centre in the matter of taxation), the Berlin correspondent of “The Times” remarked: “The Conservatives with the steady support of the Centre continue to control the situation in the Finance Reform Committee, and even the blindness of Liberals who will - not see no longer obscures the intimacy of the relations between -the new majority and the Government. The committee has to-day adopted a scheme of spirits taxation according to agrarian liking, and against all protests has decided to proceed to-morrow with the proposal to raise the duty on coffee and on tea. Herr Sydow shocked the Liberal sections of the Bloc by admitting that the Treasury is supplying' the Conservatives with material for their new unofficial’ proposals. These proposals now include the expected tax on matches and a tax on light of some indeterminate kind. The proceedings of the committee are in many respects highly irregular, but are facilitated by the recent change in the chairmanship. “With regard to spirits taxation, the scheme adopted to-day would secure to the distilleries without diminution, and apparently for all time to- come, the so-called ‘Liebesgabe,’ or preferential treatment under the spirits excise, which has been a constant subject of controversy for about a generation,”