§ MR. MANSFIELDI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, seeing that the District Auditor's Act of 1879 imposes a stamp duty on payments made by the parish councils for land hired and rented by them as allotments, thereby increasing the rent charged for the allotment, whether he can see his way to exempt such payments from the stamp duty, and so enable the councils to let the allotments at a lower rent.
§ SIR M. HICKS BEACHThe District Auditor's Act of 1879 does not impose a stamp duty on payments made by parish councils for land hired and rented by them as allotments. The stamp duty imposed by the Act in question is in the nature of a fee to the district auditor, and is graduated in accordance with the total of the expenditure comprised in the financial statement audited. The payments to which the hon. Member refers of course form part of such expenditure, but that is the only way in which they affect the amount of duty payable.