§ I am glad to say that the receipts from Customs and Excise bear equally satisfactory testimony to the condition of the people. The Exchequer receipts from Customs last year were £21,254,000 —£234,000 or 1966.11 per cent, above my estimate, and £498,000 or 2.4 per cent. above the Exchequer receipts of 1895–96. The estimated increase of the population in the year was only 0.8, and the Committee will see that the increase of the Customs revenue over that point is good testimony of increased spending power and comfort among the people. [Cheers.] The two croups of coffee and dried fruit showed a trilling improvement, which is, I fear, not likely to be maintained owing to the war in the East. Foreign spirits produced a net revenue of £4,316,000, or £99,000 more than in 1895–96. This was due to an increase of £125,000 in the receipts from rum, which is a most unaccountable article. It has been a favourite Customs theory that the receipts from rum went up as the thermometer went down, but considering the temperature of last winter I do not think that that 1254 theory can be maintained. I could never make out who drinks rum. Last year I thought it was my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Eastbourne— [laughter]—and his colleagues in the Navy, but he so indignantly resented the imputation that I hardly dare to suggest now that, as rum was so much cheaper last year, sailors as sensible men have preferred it to other spirits. [laughter.] Tea has produced £3,800,000, exactly my estimate, and £54,000 more than it produced in 1895–96. Tobacco has produced £11,013,000, or £13,000 more than my estimate, and £265,000 more than in 1895–96. Wine has produced £1,295,000, or £75,000 above my estimate, and £40,000 over the net receipts of 1895–96. The increase in the receipts from wine is a novelty in recent years. I believe it is mainly duo to the increased duty which was imposed some years ago by the present First Lord of the Admiralty upon sparkling wines. The taste for what is, I think, erroneously called champagne—[laughter]—is very largely increasing. The Committee may be disposed to draw a favourable omen for the future from the increased receipts in tea, tobacco, and wine, but I would point out that the increase has been very much less than the corresponding increase last year as compared with 1894–95. I then had to report an increase upon tea of £158,000 —I am speaking of net receipts—and now I have only to report an increase of £54,000. I then had to report an increase on tobacco of £333,000; now the increase is only £265,000. The increase on wine was then £112,000: now it is only £40,000. It looks as if the tide was rather slackening and as if, as regards Customs revenue, we have got very near high-water mark.