§ MR. MACLEANI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if he can now say what has been the result of a year's working of the Countervailing Duties Act passed in March, 1899; what amount of revenue the Act has yielded; and what effect it has had on the importation of cane and beet sugar respectively, as compared with the Returns for the years 1897–8 and 1898–9.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingIn the telegram from the Viceroy, giving an abstract of the Indian Financial Statement, which was published in the newspapers on Wednesday last, it was mentioned that for the last nine months the imports of beet sugar had fallen off to the extent of 45 per cent., but that the circumstances were such that no conclusion could safely be drawn from the figures. I can add nothing to this, nor can I give as yet the amount of revenue yielded by the countervailing duties. The imports of cane sugar for the same period are not statistically complete, but they are believed to have increased to the extent of about 12 per cent. as compared with the average off the two preceding years.