§ Mr. C. BATHURSTasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that, in the event of the moneys standing to the credit of the Pleuro-Pneumonia Account being insufficient, as is usually the case, to pay the expenses of the Board of Agriculture in connection with contagious diseases of animals, the deficit is taken out of the Local Taxation Account set apart for distribution amongst local authorities and the amount available for the general purposes of their administration reduced accordingly; that the sum so deducted out of the Local Taxation Account to meet this deficit amounted in 1911–12 to no less than £66,000, or more than double that so deducted in the previous year; and that this charge upon the county ratepayers to meet the expenses of a Government Department is in addition to the expenses of the county council in connection with animal diseases occurring within their area which they have also to defray; and whether, seeing that the services rendered by the Board of Agriculture are essentially national in character he will, in his forthcoming financial proposals, make provision for removing from the ratepayers' shoulders this obviously inequitable burden?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI am unable to anticipate the Budget statement. The statements made in the first three parts of the question are substantially accurate so far as the position in England is concerned, but the matter referred to is, of course, part of the general question of the relations between local and Imperial taxation, which, as the hon. Member is aware, is still under consideration.