§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN (Kent, Faversham)asked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether steam ploughs and threshing machines will 1452 be exempted from duty under Clause 2 of the Excise Duties (Local Purposes) Bill?
§ MR. TOWNSEND (Warwickshire, Stratford-on-Avon)had the following Question on the Paper:—To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether steam ploughing engines, used only for agricultural purposes, and using the roads only when going from the homestead to the fields, or from one field or one farm to another, will be exempt from the £5 duty on locomotives, under Clause 1 of the Excise Duties (Local Purposes) Bill?
§ MR. F. S. STEVENSON (Suffolk, Eye)also had the following Question on the Paper:—To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether it is intended that threshing drums, straw elevators, chaff cutters, and four-wheel trollies used for conveying mowing machines from farm to farm shall be exempted from the Wheel Tax?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. GOSCHEN) (St. George's, Hanover Square)I will answer this Question and those of the hon. Members for the Stratford-on-Avon and Eye Divisions together, if they will allow me. But I must warn them that my answer must be taken as explanatory only of my proposals in the Bill, and not as an authoritative declaration of the interpretation they are to place upon the terms of the Act when it becomes law. According to the terms and intention of the Bill a licence will not be required for a steam plough, threshing machine, elevator, trolley, or any other implement used solely in agriculture. But locomotives or traction engines used at all on the roads will be chargeable to duty.