§ MR. ATKINSON (Boston)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will let the Committee on the Incidence of Light Dues meet, without any longer seeking to bind the ship-owning members to give up their conviction that light dues should fall on the Consolidated Fund, in accordance with the recommendation of Select Committees of this House?
§ *SIR M. HICKS BEACHThe Committee to which the hon. Member refers was instituted on the suggestion that a Committee on which the shipping interest should be represented should be appointed to consider the incidence of the present system of light dues and the possibility of substituting a tax on shipping for them. If the shipowners insist, as I understand they do, on the justice of these matters being paid for out of the Consolidated Fund, I do not see that such a Committee would serve any useful purpose.