§ MR. STORERasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether, considering 1974 the depressed state of British agriculture in consequence chiefly of foreign competition, he will consider the advisability of giving relief to the cultivator of the soil by some modification or relaxation of the Malt Tax in his case, so as to allow him to use his barley, when malted, free from tax in the production of corn, meat, butter, &c., that he may be able to compete on more equal terms with the foreign producers of those articles, who are subjected to no such impost?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, in reply, said, the Question of his hon. Friend involved three or four assumptions which he (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) should be disposed to deny if he had an opportunity of debating the question. As, however, he was debarred from doing so, he would only say that it was not in the power of the Government to make any proposals with regard to the malt tax other than those which were already embodied in the statutes, with which, no doubt, the hon. Member was familiar. The cultivator was at present allowed to germinate grain for feeding cattle free of any tax, or if he wished to use the grain dry he could do so. Such was the present state of the law, and the Government were not prepared to make any alterations in it.
§ MR. STORERgave Notice that he would take an early opportunity of moving a Resolution on the subject.