§ MR. HENNIKER-MAJORsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the office of Stamp Distributor at Lowestoft, recently vacant by the death of Mr. Robert Morris, has been or is about to be conferred upon a Mr. Chater, a solicitor, who already holds the office of Registrar of the County Court in that town; and, whether, as all other professional gentlemen in the district must attend before him to pass residuary and succession s accounts, he considers it expedient in a town of that size to appoint a solicitor to such a post?
MR. GLADSTONEsaid, in reply, that Mr. Chater had been appointed, to the office in question. The matter was one with respect to which the Government had been in communication with the Board of Inland Revenue. In such a matter the Treasury would be governed by the wishes and views of the Board of Inland Revenue, who were quite unconscious of any disadvantage attending the appointment of a solicitor to the office of stamp distributor. Various solicitors now filled these offices; no rule existed against such appointments; and it was observed to him that, with reference to various classes of documents, where doubt existed as to the precise amount of stamp duty required, a solicitor would be the most convenient I stamp distributor, because he would be able to state what was the exact stamp required. As to the latter part of the Question, a solicitor appointed to such a post might derive such a kind of benefit as a postmaster derived from his appointment—namely, some increase of custom from the persons frequenting his shop; but this could not be helped, and he saw no evil in it.