45. Mr. FREDERICK HALL (Dulwich)asked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been called to the fact that the taxes on property imposed under the Finance (1909–10) Act, 1910, have not yielded the return which was anticipated when that taxation was proposed in 1909; if the Government has in contemplation any fresh proposals for providing new sources of revenue, which shall afford more reliable estimates of probable receipts, to meet deficiencies arising as the result of the miscalculations in regard to the 1909 Land Taxes; and if the failure to provide the necessary ships to maintain the strength of the Navy on the basis which 724 the First Lord of the Admiralty has stated to provide the smallest margin of superiority which can safely be admitted is due to the mistaken estimate of the receipts from the Land Taxes, which it was stated at the time would be applied in part towards building up the Navy?
§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Asquith)The reply to the first part of the question is in the affirmative (so far as concerns certain of the taxes on property imposed under the Act), and to the second and third parts in the negative. I must not be taken as accepting the implication underlying the question.