§ I think at this point I must very briefly refer to two Committees which have been sitting to inquire into matters connected with our revenue. The first is the Income-tax Committee 1065 presided over by my right hon. friend the Member for Croydon. That Committee has not yet presented its Report, although I think it has very nearly completed its labours; but, of course, the results will arrive too late for me to apply them to the finances of the present year. The other Committee, the appointment of which arose out of our Finance Bill discussions of last year, was asked to inquire into the facilities that now exist for the use of alcohol for industrial purposes, and to recommend any changes which they might think necessary with a view to facilitating the development of our trade. Their Report reached me a few days ago, and will be in the hands of Members within a very short time. It proposes certain changes in our regulations, some of them of a rather technical character, which I think the Committee will better appreciate from a perusual of the Report itself than from any statement I could make. I only desire to say that, on the consideration which I have up to the present time been able to give, I hope to be able to adopt the whole of these recommendations, though they will require legislation and must form the subject of a separate measure. They will, I believe, remove difficulties which have existed in the use of alcohol in certain trades, and I hope they will be accepted as a satisfactory solution of a very difficult and complicated problem by all concerned. I must also very briefly announce one or two minor changes which I propose to introduce. The Committee may remember that in the course of the discussion of the Finance Bill of last year I accepted an Amendment reducing the Warehousing Charges payable on the clearance of certain dutiable goods from the Customs to one half the figure at which it previously stood. Those charge were graduated according to the amount of the duty, and when I raised the duty I had no desire to raise the charges at the same time. The Warehousing Charges now stand at 1/16 or 1⅛ per cent., according to the nature of the goods. They only bring in £26,000 to the revenue and cause an amount of trouble and annoyance, and, I believe, often of cost to the traders out of all proportion to their value to the Exchequer. I propose to 1066 clear away the remainder of the Warehousing Charges. For the same reason I propose to abolish the stamp on bonds given for the exportation or removal of dutiable goods and on notices to export given under a general bond, and also the penny stamp on delivery orders. It is difficult to defend the retention of these stamp duties when once attention is drawn to them. The former is unequal in its incidence, for whilst bonds and notices relating to tea and tobacco are liable, similar bonds and notices relating to coal and spirits are exempt. The stamp on delivery orders is not less difficult to justify. It is very easy of evasion, and I think the obligation to pay it is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. When I made some inquiry, after a recent deputation, why this matter had not been again pressed upon my attention by the members who waited upon me, I learned that it was because so little was paid on that account already that they thought it better not to direct my attention to it. These two stamp duties together produce only £10,000 or £12,000 to the revenue, and are even less worth retaining from the Exchequer point of view than the Warehousing Charge. I believe that the relief accorded by these changes will be appreciated by traders. They will strike some fetters off trade which have existed for many years, in spite of the little justification there is for them. The relief will cost practically nothing to the Exchequer, and does not affect the figures which I have already given to the Committee, for I have taken account of it in the Estimates that I have already presented.