§ The estimated expenditure for the year chargeable against Exchequer revenue amounts to £112,927,000, an increase of £6,098,000 over the Budget Estimate of the previous year. The principal causes of that increase are as follows:—There has been an increase of £742,000 in the Consolidated Fund services. That is almost wholly due to the fact that this year the whole, instead of the half, of the grant made to Ireland by the Local Government Act of last year for poor rate and county cess is charged on the Consolidated Fund—an increase of £364,000 this year. And, further, the sum of £281,000 is also charged on that fund, of which £244,000 was formerly voted on the Civil Service Estimates for the maintenance of pauper lunatics and for other charges in Ireland, and £97,000 for a corresponding grant to Scotland. The Civil Service Estimates have been relieved by this arrangement of £244,000 a year; but I am sorry to say that, owing to the increased charges for education, the expenditure in East and West Africa, and other purposes, they have gone up by £387,000. The cost of the Postal Services has increased by £781,000, due to the fact that the reforms initiated in the Jubilee year and the improved pay and condition of the service of the employees are beginning to press very heavily on the Post Office Estimates. The Army Estimates have increased by £1,396,000 and the Navy Estimates by £2,817,000. The total, as I have said, shows an increase of £6,098,000 over the preceding year. I wish the Committee to take special notice that this is following a similar increase of more than £5,000,000 last year, and that the total increase in our estimated expenditure, if we include the Local Taxation Account for the last four years, is no less than £19,076,000.