§ MR. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in preparing the Budget Estimates for the year 1905–6, he will append thereto a schedule giving particulars of orders given and contracts entered into by the Government for stores, buildings, munitions of war, or other supplies which will have to be delivered to the Government in future, but which have not been provided for in the said Budget Estimates; and whether he will also give an estimate of the amount of arrears of income-tax outstanding on 31st March, 1905, as compared with the amount of arrears of the said tax which were outstanding on 31st March, 1904.
(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain.) I must ask the hon. Member to await the Budget statement. If, when that statement is made, it does not contain information which he thinks indispensable, I shall be prepared to consider the propriety of supplementing it by further communications. But I must respectfully decline to pledge myself beforehand as to the nature and scope of the statement.