§ MR. SEARSI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, seeing that a probate registry is an office for formally receiving estate duty affidavits to be sworn to without question as to accuracy or value of the items composing the estate, that the collector of Inland Revenue receives the duty and interest for which he gives a temporary receipt, and that the documents are then transmitted to London, Dublin, or Edinburgh, as the case may be, where the whole examination into values given up for duty is conducted, he will consider the advisability of not maintaining registries for the storage of wills in towns having a collector's office sometimes in the same building.
§ MR. ASQUITHThe collection of duty on probate of wills is only one incident in the process of probate, and is always performed by officers of Inland Revenue, who, however, could not conveniently be charged with the whole business of probate, including custody of wills. It is an error to suppose that district registrars of the Court of Probate are concerned solely with custody of wills.