WAYS AND MEANS—SUGAR DUTIKS. (Hansard, 7 March 1833)

§ Mr. Hume
rose to move the reduction of the duties upon sugar. His Motion was, that the duty should be reduced from 24s. to 15s. The duty had been increased as a war tax, but it had not since been reduced. It would be highly beneficial to the West-India planters, as well as to the people of this country, to reduce the tax. Even an ad valorem duty would be more advantageous. He conceived, that the equalization of the duties on West-India and East India sugars would be most advantageous. He was convinced, that it would not injure the West-Indian planters, because East India sugar was not fit for refining, whilst it would enable the inhabitants of our East-Indian possessions to pay for the manufactures of this country in native produce.

§ Mr. John Stewart
would not go, at present, into the question of equalizing the East and West India duties; and although he, and all who were interested in the West Indies, must feel obliged to the hon. member for Middlesex, yet they did not think the present a fitting time for refusing the annual duties; his Majesty's Government being engaged in the consideration of the important subject of the West Indies, and all things showing the probability of an approaching settlement of that question.

§ Mr. Herries
said, he was glad to hear that some measure was likely to be brought forward for the settlement of colonial affairs; but, he must say, he did not think it wise of his Majesty's Government, at the same time, to bring forward this measure for the renewal of the sugar duties. He objected to the mode of bringing forward this proposition on constitutional grounds. It was an established principle, that the House should not grant any money, until it had first determined the purposes to which that money was to be applied; or, in other words, that the Ways and Means were not to be proposed until the supply had been granted. In this instance the Government had deviated from the former practice, and without any sufficient reason having been assigned; for the House was here called upon to vote four millions, without having had the supplies regularly submitted for its consideration. The House had a right to know to what purposes the public money was to be devoted, before it sanctioned the appropriation of that money. There was a wide distinction between those votes of money to pay off Exchequer Bills, 389 which were merely to supply the votes of the last year, and those votes which were votes of Ways and Means for the current year; and, although the former were justifiable, the latter were not. He must, therefore, express his regret that the noble Lord opposite had not taken an opportunity of making, in the first instance, his general statement of expenditure, before moving any part of the Ways and Means, as had always been done on former occasions. Hearing, as he every day did, promises of a repeal of taxes, which he knew must be disappointed, he felt that the sooner the public were undeceived on that point the better.

§ Lord Althorp
would admit the general principle, that a reduction of duty tended to increase consumption, so as to prevent a loss of revenue, but could not, in the present state of the revenue, venture to adopt such an extensive reduction as that proposed by the hon. member for Middlesex. That reduction would affect the revenue to the extent of 1,800,000l., an amount which could not be safely risked on the mere chance of increasing the consumption. He was less induced to make the reduction on recollecting that the revenue lost the whole amount of the reduction from 27s. to 24s.; so that, to make a small reduction would only injure the revenue without essentially benefiting the consumer; and to make so large a one as from 24s. to 15s. would be the risking a very great diminution of the revenue on the chance of a counter balancing increased consumption. Again, the hon. Member said, his object was the benefiting the West-India interest, by consuming all its produce in this country, and yet, in the same breath, he proposed the admission of East-India sugars at a reduced duty. Did it not follow, that the latter proposition would destroy the former, inasmuch as the competition must tend to drive West-India sugar out of the market to the extent of the consumption of East-India sugar? Those, however, though strong, were not his chief objections to the hon. Member's Motion. He conceived, that the present was a most improper time for adopting such a proposition; in the first place, they were shortly, in the course of the present Session, to have to inquire into the general bearing of the East-India Company's Charter, and also a question deeply involving the commercial interests of the West-India colonies; so that, on the face of it, it would be highly inexpedient to adopt any ex parte proposition in reference to either interest. He 390 now came to the statements of the right hon. Gentleman, who had contended, that it was the general practice and habit of that House not to vote Ways and Means, until it had granted an equal amount of Supply. The right hon. Gentleman had made a distinction between the Supply for the payment of outstanding Exchequer Bills, and the Supply for the expenses of the current year. But it appeared to him (Lord Althorp), that the objection of the right hon. Gentleman to the vote under consideration, if it were not entirely technical, partook largely of a technical character. For, it must be remembered, that the vote of sugar duties of last night was but the first step, and that the reception of that vote to night would be but a second step in the process of imposing those duties. Those duties could be actually imposed only by Bill, the whole course of which Bill might be discussed and disputed; so that, practically, the House had just as much power over the duties as if they had not been voted in the Committee of Supply, and might stop the progress of the Bill if they were dissatisfied with the manner in which his Majesty's Government proposed to apply the duties. In fact, then, before that Bill could be passed, supply to a greater extent than those duties would be voted. And as to his not having sooner brought forward the annual financial statement, he need only remind the right hon. Gentleman, that the quarter ending the 5th of April was one of great importance in framing a satisfactory balance-sheet. Last year, for example, that quarter made a difference of 600,000l., as compared with the same quarter of the year 1831. He only awaited the returns of the current quarter, confident that the financial statement for 1833 would be satisfactory.

§ Mr. Hume
said, that the Amendment on the Resolution should be introduced now, or else it could not be introduced at all, for what was agreed to in Committee could not afterwards be altered by the House.