§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, Sir, in moving that the House at its rising do adjourn to Monday, I will take the opportunity of answering a question which a noble Lord opposite (Lord W. Graham) has given notice of his intention to ask me, and also to make a short explanation of some Resolutions I am about to lay on the table of the House. The question of the noble Lord is, whether I consider the profits of tenant-farmers to have been largely increased during the last four years, because the Returns to the income tax under Schedule B have increased during that period. It is a mere matter of opinion, on which no argument can be founded. I have arrived at that conclusion, from figures which are open to the inspection of any Member of the House. I am perfectly aware that the immediate test of the payments under Schedule B is the actual rent; but the farmer has the opportunity of proving before the Income-tax Commissioners that his profits are not equal to the charge on him calculated on the rent, and may obtain a relief from a portion of the charge. But on looking at Schedule B, I find that the farmers have 219 not found it to their interest generally to decline the fixed standard of rent, and go on the standard of profit; and from that I assume that the farmers' profits have been fully equal to his assessment calculated on the rental. I think the whole country believes that the farmers' profits during recent years have been considerably greater than they were during a long previous period; and it is evident from the large capital he has found it his interest to lay out in agricultural improvements; for if he were not making a profit he would not be desirous of making such expenditure. The Resolutions to which I have alluded are of importance to the whole commercial community. They are the 11th, 12th, and 13th, in the Committee on Customs Acts, and 1st and 2nd in the Resolutions of the Committee of Ways and Means. The first of these, the 11th, refers to the registration dues to be charged, with some modifications and adjustments, on exports and imports. I will lay the Resolutions on the table forthwith, in the form in which the Government intends to submit them to the sanction of the House, and describe very shortly what will be their effect. The goods are to be considered in the classification under which they fall in the course of business, and according to the methods in which they are respectively handled for the purposes of the public accounts. The goods imported into this country are divided into two classes—those liable to the payment of duty and those that are free. They are both very large; but the second class will henceforth, I hope, be the larger of the two. So far as goods liable to duty on importation into this country are concerned, inasmuch as the collection of the duty itself requires the operation of registration, we do not propose to levy on those goods any additional charge whatever. With respect, however, to goods which come into this country free of duty, and in respect to which the Customs' establishment is necessarily put to a great amount of labour, we propose to charge 1d. on each unit of entry, but with such modifications as will have for their general object to prevent that charge from exceeding in any case the ordinary ad valorem rate of one quarter per cent. With regard to the goods exported from this country, and of which there are four important classes, we intend to submit to the House the following arrangements for its approval The first of the classes to which I allude is that which is embraced under the head 220 of trans-shipments. A very large trade is carried on in this country in the case of goods which are never landed, but of which account is taken by the Customs' Department, and with respect to which a considerable amount of labour is incurred. It would, however, in my opinion, be extremely inexpedient to charge on those goods such an amount as would impede the course of trade, or which would be regarded as in any way burdensome. In the case, therefore, of goods which are simply trans-shipped, we propose that they should be charged at the rate of 1s. on the value for each £100 worth. In reference to foreign goods exported from this country out of warehouse—that is to say, which would have been liable to duty if delivered for consumption here, and in respect of which the Customs, if they had been delivered for consumption, would have been reimbursed for their labour by receiving the required duty—it is our intention to levy on the whole of that class of goods a charge of 1d., fixed on the weight in the case of solids, and on the measure in the case of liquids, according to the tariff, which will be very simple, inasmuch as the whole of the goods warehoused in this country will be reduced to nine or ten articles. Solid goods, then, will in general be charged on every 100lb. weight at the rate of 1d., but in one or two cases at the rate of 1d. on every 50lb. In the case of liquids the charge will be at the rate of 1d. on every five gallons. There is an other class of goods, which being foreign in their origin, but coming into this country without any payment of duty, are exported after having undergone here some particular sort of operation. Those free imports which have not gone into warehouses, but have been landed, and subsequently sent abroad, we consider to belong to the same class as British goods when exported. It is necessary to take with respect to them an accurate account. Now, in the case of that particular description of exports, it is evident that the simplest as well as the most accurate mode of proceeding is to charge a small fee according to their value, and which shall have no reference to the number of packages or the descripstion of articles exported. The reason why I look upon value as the best standand to take in this instance is that the value of the goods is invariably set forth in the document, which it is necessary should be presented before any goods can be ex-ported, and that the imposition of a small 221 charge will give the means of effecting improvements which, as I shall on some future occasion be able to show the House, are much needed in order to procure an accurate statistical account of the exports of the country. There will, therefore, according to my proposed arrangement, be three modes of charge—one of 1d. on free imports; another of 1d. on foreign goods out of warehouse; a third, a charge of one-eighth per cent ad valorem on British goods when exported, and on foreign goods imported free of duty, and re-exported never having paid any. [Sir S. NORTH COTE: What will be the rate fixed upon these goods on which drawbacks have been paid?] They do not require any separate arrangement. Goods trans-shipped will be charged at the rate of 1s. on the value, and corn and timber, which are liable to a low duty on importation, but which, nevertheless, do not go into warehouse at all, we propose shall be subjected neither to registration dues on importation, nor to any charge when re-exported; we consider that the low duty they have paid should be taken to cover the charges of registration. It will be found by the Resolutions which I shall lay on the table for the purpose of carrying into effect the proposals of the Government with regard to registration dues that such an adjustment has been made as to secure the sum of nearly £300,000, upon which my calculations were based. The next Resolution, No. 12, relates to the removal of goods in warehouse. I must own that objection might very fairly be taken to that Resolution in the form in which it was originally presented to the House, both on the ground that the charge which it fixed was too high, and that it would operate with undue weight in these instances in which successive removals of goods might take place. The total amount which we hope to receive from the charge on removal is not large, and were it only a mere question of finance which was involved in the matter, we might have abandoned the £50,000 or £60,000 a year which we hope to derive from this charge. There is, however, another consideration connected with this impost, to which some degree of importance is to be attached. It is only by means of a charge on removal that we can establish a self-acting registration where bonding privileges exist, for in inland towns and in ports of secondary importance, the expense attendant upon keeping up a separate establishment would by no means be reim- 222 bursed to the State by any revenue derived from the bonded merchandise. We therefore propose to continue the charge on removal, making a reduction in the amount, so that in future it shall be a uniform charge of 1d. on each £1 of duty to which the articles subject to it may be liable. I may add that in the case of tobacco, the duty on which is enormous, we propose that the charge shall be a halfpenny. It is also our intention that the charge for removal shall be levied along with the charge for duty. By this arrangement it will only be levied once, inasmuch as it will only be paid on the final removal from the warehouse. The charge will be levied on the purchaser of the goods when he pays the duty: and in this way it will be levied over the whole of the community, and will not fall exclusively upon the dealer in bonded goods. There is also another change which I propose to make, which, I trust, will add something to the revenue of the country, but which I adopt not so much on that account as because I deem it absolutely necessary to remedy a glaring anomaly in the case of removals which at present exists, but which would be ten times more glaring in consequence of the alteration in the duties of wine, tending to produce a considerable increase in import of that article, which the House has deemed it right to sanction. In accordance with the present law, while every man who deals in wine pays a duty and is liable to be called upon to take out a ten-guinea licence, it is open to any person who may think fit to do so to deal in wine which has not paid duty, bonded in warehouse, without taking out any licence whatsoever. It would, therefore, in my opinion, be most unjust to the general dealer in wine to permit this exemption any longer to exist, especially under the altered circumstances of the wine trade which we expect will take place. We therefore propose that all persons dealing in bonded wine or spirits in a less quantity than ninety gallons shall be liable to be called upon to take out a ten-guinea licence. Many persons are desirous that on all classes dealing in bonded goods a certain charge should be laid, but I am of opinion that such a course could not be taken without subjecting the public to much vexation, and that its operation would be attended with a great deal of difficulty. With respect to the third Resolution—namely, that which relates to operations in warehouses—I have to state to the House that the principle on which the Resolution 223 proceeds is to reduce the rate of charge, is which is undoubtedly higher than is necessary, and to define more equitably and more particularly the particular cases to which that rate of charge should be applicable. These three Resolutions will have to be considered in the Committee on the Customs Acts, and, taken together with the hop duties, I believe they are the only three which remain to be thus considered. There is one proposal which I wish to make for the purpose of removing anomalies, and it is but a duty of Is. per ton on foreign shipbuilding wood. I make that proposal with the view of equalizing the position of the builders of foreign ships which come into this country for registration, and the builders of ships here who are called upon to pay a low duty on the material of which the ships are made. These, then, are the Resolutions which are to be proposed in Committee on the Customs' duties. There are, however, two others with respect to which much discussion is likely to take place—I allude to these relating to dock-warrants and to contract notes. These I cannot lay upon the table in an amended form to-night, but I can state to the Committee the substantial end to which they will be directed. They bear upon four classes of subjects, which are entirely distinct from one another. The first is notes issued by dealers in stocks, shares, and securities, and the proposal to impose a 1d. stamp on these notes has been, I think, in principle generally approved. I shall propose a Resolution for the purpose of giving effect to that principle; but I shall also propose, in order to prevent its bearing hardly and inconveniently on some classes of transactions, particularly these connected with certain charities, that there shall be an exemption of all transactions where the value of the stock, share, or security to which they refer, shall not exceed £20. That disposes of the question of contract notes furnished by brokers, dealers, or middle men. The second class are dock warrants, which are intended to serve as distinct and independent evidence of the existence of certain goods; and that evidence is supplied, not by the owner or vendor of the goods, but by an independent person—namely, the owner of the warehouse or wharf in which the goods are deposited, whether he be an individual or a company. When the document that thus traces the existence of the goods has acquired such independent evidence, it becomes a security capable of being deposited, and being the basis of an 224 advance of money. In that character I propose that all dock warrants, so defined, whether issued by companies or individuals, shall, as negotiable instruments, be charged with a stamp of 3d. The remaining question relates to two other subjects—namely, delivery orders and contract notes, or notes of purchase and sale of produce. On examining this question, I am bound to admit that if we do lay 1d. of charge on delivery orders and contract notes, the effect in general would be to lay a double tax on some transactions; and likewise, I must admit, so far as contract notes are concerned, it would be extremely difficult to find an adequate legal definition which would make them liable to charge, and which, at the same time, would not include a great many documents it is not intended to include, and which it would be hardly fair to include—such as, for example, all tenders to execute orders or undertake contracts on certain terms—sale notes that are furnished in the corn-trade, and which are absolutely subject to refusal, and may become altogether void. These are documents which it would be very unadvisable to include; and, under these circumstances, reserving the Resolutions, so far as regards stock, shares, and securities, I propose entirely to abandon them, and to apply the Id. charge to other contract notes. On the other hand, I propose to place 1d. charge on all delivery orders, with the exception of such orders as relate to goods under the value of 40s. That will be the effect of the Resolutions as they will be submitted to the House for their definitive judgment. I do not now enter into the consideration of the particular clauses; but I thought it was desirable that I should at the earliest moment make known the intentions of the Government on these subjects, which, to a considerable degree, hang together. And now, thanking the House for permitting me to make this explanation, I beg leave to lay on the table the four Resolutions to which I have referred, and which will be considered in Committee on the Customs Acts.
§ Motion made, that the House, at rising, do adjourn till Monday next.