§ I think that the Committee will not feel astonished if, after the arguments I have laid before them, I say that in my judgment the repeal of this duty by Mr. Lowe in 1869 was a great mistake; and that a time when it is essential to the country, in my judgment, to increase the yield from indirect taxation is a time also when it ought to be reimposed. The duty will be leviable, as before, at the time of importation when passing the Customs entry, on documentary evidence of weight, unless intended for re-exportation, in which case bond will be taken for the duty until it is re-exported. With this exception no bonding will be allowed, nor any drawback, for the same reason for which they were not allowed before, as the duty is so low. The duty will be 3d. per cwt. on all corn and grain.
§ SIR M. HICKS BEACHAssuming that to be the duty on corn and grain, what should he the correlative duty on flour and meal? In the years to which I have referred that correlative duty was 4½d. per cwt.—50 per cent. more. It was based, of course, upon a calculation of the average quantity of corn which it took to make a certain amount of flour. But since that time the circumstances of the milling industry have undergone a considerable change. In those days the amount of flour produced from, let me say, 100cwt. of wheat was calculated to be 80cwt., it was then produced by grinding with millstones, a process now practically extinct—at any rate in the countries from which our flour comes. Under the present process of grinding flour. 100cwt. of wheat would only yield 72ewt. instead of 80cwt. of flour: but the flour would be of much finer quality, because it would not include the offal which was formerly included in the old flour. Therefore, I think it 186 is clear that in order to equalise the duty as between flour and corn we must put the duty on flour somewhat higher than it was before, and I propose to put it at 5d. per cwt,. The duty will be imposed on all kinds of flour and meal. The total yield of those duties for the current year I estimate at £2,650,000, making the total estimated receipts from new taxation £5,150,000.