§ MR. LANE-FOX (Yorkshire, W. R., Barkston Ash)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether a recent Return has shown that a considerable proportion of the beer brewed in this country is almost entirely brewed from malt and hops; and whether he can favourably differentiate in the coming Budget in the taxation of such beer as compared with that levied upon beer brewed largely from malt substitutes.
§ MR. ASQUITHIt is true that "a considerable proportion of the beer brewed in this country is almost entirely brewed from malt and hops." It is, however, also true that, in substituting a beer duty for the old malt duty in 1880, Mr. Gladstone made "freedom of the mash-tun" a prominent condition of the change, and that no good reason has ever been shown for departing from that condition. I may refer the hon. Member to the Report of Beer Materials Committee, No. C. 9171 of 1899.