MR. NORTHCOTEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, If it is the fact that the Board of Customs have declined to recommend to the Treasury that Exeter should be made a testing port; are the Treasury aware that only eleven ports and bonding towns in the United Kingdom contribute a larger Customs Revenue than Exeter; is it correct that the bonding towns of Plymouth, Southampton, Newhaven, Folkestone, and Gloucester contribute altogether less Customs Revenue than Exeter alone, and that the total revenue of the last three towns is less than the amount of duty on direct importations into Exeter in spite of the difficulties raised by the Customs as to the transshipment of cargoes from the Bight through the Exeter Canal; whether the Treasury are aware that great expense is entailed on the Crown and on the wholesale wine and spirit merchants of Exeter through the necessity of sending samples to Plymouth to be tested; can he state what would be the cost of making Exeter a testing port; and, would it exceed that already necessitated by keeping officers from other ports at Exeter for considerable periods of time at extra charges of subsistence; and, will he reconsider the decision stated to have been arrived at by the Treasury on the Customs advice?
§ LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISHThe question of making Exeter a testing port has been carefully considered, and we have come to the conclusion that no case has been made out for doing so. The statements in the Question are only partly accurate, the duty on direct im- 1639 portations into Exeter being only about £20,000 a-year, or much less than the total revenue of the three towns which he names. Testing is a technical operation, and should be carried on at as few places as possible, and the places selected are those where it can be carried on most conveniently and economically. No appreciable expense to the Crown is caused by Exeter not being a testing port, nor am I aware that the merchants are put to any expense by it, although some slight delay is doubtless caused. It would cost about £200 a-year to make Exeter a testing port, and there would be no compensatory reduction; the extra charges alluded to in the Question will cease when a vacancy is filled up.
MR. NORTHCOTEsaid, that, as his information was different from that of the noble Lord, he should put a further Question to him on Monday.