§ VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH (Maidstone)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has boon directed to the fact that every poison trading in or selling any article composed wholly or in part of gold or silver is compelled to take out an annual licence in respect of every place where his business is carried on, costing £2 6s. a year, where the gold in any article exceeds two pennyweights, or the silver exceeds five pennyweights, and costing,£5 15s. a year whore the gold in any article exceeds two ounces, or the silver exceeds thirty ounces; and whether having regard to the fact that this annual duty bears hardly upon a number of artistic workers in gold or silver, he will consider the desirability of freeing their industry from the peculiar tax at present imposed upon it.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (MR. ASQUITH, Fife, E.)The duty is as stated, and yields about £36,000 per annum. It may, however, be taken that the purpose of the tax is not so much to produce revenue, as to afford protection to the public against the fraudulent sale of articles made of debased gold and silver, and I doubt whether the traders themselves, who pay the duty, would favour its abolition or reduction.