§ The results of the past year are already in the hands of hon. Members. After allowing for the changes introduced into the Budget during its passage through this House, I estimated the revenue at £143,390,000, and it has actually realised £143,370,000, a difference of only £20,000 on these high figures. 1048 So near an approximation between the actual result and the estimate framed twelve months before is indeed remarkable. But I confess that I should feel more satisfied if that close correspondence in the aggregates had not been accompanied by an equally remarkable divergence in many of the details of which the result is composed. Customs fell short of my estimate by £500,000. Sugar, in spite of the shortage of supply and the high prices prevailing during the latter part of the year realised £180,000 more than I had expected. Had it not been for the failure of the Continental beet crop it would very largely have exceeded my anticipations, and though under present circumstances it is necessary to make a cautious estimate of the yield from this source of revenue in the current year, it promises to be an expanding revenue in future years, when good harvests shall have restored prices to their normal level. Tea fell short of my estimate by £210,000. The greater portion of this deficiency occurred in the last quarter of the year, and may perhaps be attributable mainly to the holding back of dutiable goods on the chance that some relief might now be available. Tobacco has again done well. It has produced nearly £600,000 more than in the preceding year, and a quarter of a million more than my estimate. That, I think, is a not unsatisfactory result for a trade which I was told I had reduced to stagnation. The coffee group shows a slight falling off, and dried fruits give a slight increase. Coal has produced £50,000 more than the estimate, realising £2,050,000. The past year has been a record one in the exportation of coal, whether we regard the export as a whole or confine our attention to that portion of coal which is subject to the tax; and that in spite of the fact that the; lower prices prevailing have brought a larger portion of the export within the limits of exemption and have excluded it from the purview of the tax.