§ MR. M. M. BHOWNAGGREE (Bethnal Green, N.E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, in view of the fact that the Government of India issued a Resolution in 1882 in which they expressed a desire that all possible encouragement should be held out to the development of sugar cane industry in the Bombay Presidency, and the Government of Bombay, acting upon this instruction, held out hopes in 1883 and 1884 to the proprietor of a sugar refinery in Poona that he would be allowed to effect retail sale of rum (which is a bye-product of sugar manufacture) under similar conditions to those which were adopted in Madras and other parts of India, and that in consequence of this privilege being withheld the sugar refinery at Poona had to be closed in 1892, whether, as a means of reviving and developing this industry in Bombay, he would recommend the local Governments to give all sugar refineries the privilege of selling rum under the same conditions as prevail at Madras and elsewhere?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingI have no complete information about the Poona sugar factory to which my hon. Friend refers; but a copy of his Question will be forwarded to the Government of India, and their attention will be drawn to the matter.