§ LORD CLAUD HAMILTONsaid, seeing the hon. Member for Westbury in his place, he wished to ask him whether it were true that the new regulation with respect to the sale of coffee and chicory had been evaded; and, if so, whether it was the intention of the Government to make any alteration?
§ MR. J. WILSONsaid, that frauds on a very large scale were committed in effecting the sale of packages containing a mixture of chicory and coffee. If the letter of the law were not exactly violated, its spirit was most decidedly broken through. 325 The attention of the Board of Inland Revenue had been called to the existence of the frauds in question, and a great number of seizures had, in consequence, been made. He had, however, lately communicated with the Chairman of the Board, and they had agreed upon the adoption of a system which he hoped would have the effect of preventing the occurrence of frauds in connexion with the sale of chicory and coffee for the future. The Treasury had issued a circular by which they required that on one side of the packages there should be nothing printed except words stating that they contained a mixture of chicory and coffee, and that on the other side of the packages there should be nothing printed except the name and address of the vendor. They also required that a similar arrangement should be adopted in the case of mixtures of chicory and coffee enclosed in canisters.