Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/360

expenditures with the ordinary receipts, and also take proper steps toward obtaining a revenue needed for meeting the extraordinary expenditures. The parity between the receipts and the expenditures was restored, and the national finance at last brought back to its normal path of progress.

When the Bill for increased taxation was first brought before the thirteenth session of the Diet—a Bill which, when passed, would suddenly increase the burden of taxation as has never happened since the Restoration—a great confusion of opinion prevailed, not only among members of both Houses of the Diet, but also among members of different political parties. Even among those who adhered to the positive programme of national expansion and supported the Bill, there were not a few who were afraid that the practical working of the Bill might not be as satisfactory as was expected. The country is to be congratulated, however, that scarcely a trace has been found since then that the people found the increased burden unbearable, that the result of collecting the taxes has proved as good as was expected, and that one important stage has been finally passed in the normal development of the post-bellum programme.

I cannot hide from myself the confidence that, with the foundations thus laid by the post-bellum financial adjustment, if the future policy of the Government is determined in accordance with the lines thus laid down, all the benefits of the victorious war will be finally gathered in.

As may be seen from the foregoing, the main points of the post-bellum administration were that the increase in the ordinary expenditures should be met by increased taxation, and that the extraordinary expenditures should be met by appropriating the Chinese indemnity and raising public loans. Owing to the unexpected rapidity with which the expenditures increased, as well as to certain differences of views between the Government and the Diet, temporary makeshifts had sometimes to be employed; but, thanks to the adoption of the two excessive measures of increased taxation, the financial equilibrium was properly maintained in the Budget of the fiscal year of 1900–01. The estimated revenue and expenditure in 1900–01 were as follows:

My report carries the account of the financial administration to the time when this satisfactory state was attained. I shall now add a few facts of importance in order to bring my account up