MR. GILPINsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, If his attention has been called to the case of George Furneaux, of Penryn, a collector of Income Tax, to the fact that, having been duly appointed to his office upon making a solemn declaration in lieu of oath, his return of defaulters was objected to, on the ground that its correctness was not sworn to; and whether, if the attention of the Treasury has been called to this inconsistency of the existing Law, the Government will take the needful steps to remedy the inconsistency by legislative enactment, or by giving power to the Treasury in all cases to accept a solemn declaration in lieu of oath?
§ MR. STANSFELDsaid, in reply to the Question of the hon. Member, he had to state that Mr. George Furneaux, a collector of income tax at Penryn, had objected to verifying upon oath his Schedule of defaulters, and had applied to the Treasury to relieve him from that necessity. The Act of Parliament, however, requiring that that the Schedules 1368 should be verified upon oath, the Treasury had no power to grant him the relief he sought. The second part of the hon. Member's Question was hardly a departmental one, and therefore he could give no reply to it.