§ MR. O'SULLIVANasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether it is a fact that the Inland Revenue Commissioners have admitted that the revenue has been defrauded during the past year in one warehouse alone of not less than thirteen thousand pounds by the system lately permitted of racking and blending spirits in bond; if he can inform the House how many hundred thousand pounds the revenue are defrauded every year in the different Excise and Custom House Stores in Great Britain and Ireland by this practice; and, if in the face of these admitted facts, the Government will still permit spirits to be racked and blended in Her Majesty's Bonding Stores in Great Britain and Ireland?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERThe Board of Inland Revenue has, as a matter of fact, stated in their 19th annual Report that in one of the bonded warehouses the duty lost to the Revenue from the practice of racking spirits from one set of casks to another, and afterwards extracting the spirit absorbed by the empty casks, was estimated at £13,000. They say there is no reason, however, for supposing that the same practice has been generally followed elsewhere, or that any such amount of loss as is suggested in the Question has been occasioned by the practice. They say that so far as the warehouses under 196 the control of the Board are concerned, instructions were issued in July last, on the practice being brought to the notice of the Board, placing greater restrictions on the operations of racking and blending in bond in order to protect the Revenue in that particular. I understand from the Board of Customs that their attention has been directed to the same subject. They do not think the practice has prevailed to any great extent in the Customs warehouses; but they are in communication with the Board of Inland Revenue on the subject, and they believe that instructions that are being prepared will meet the grievance. I do not think there is any occasion from the facts brought before us to have recourse to the extreme measure of withdrawing altogether the privilege of racking and blending spirits in bond.