§ MR. LEAI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Inland Revenue officials do not discriminate in their accounts between pot-still and patent-still whisky, the distilleries being in almost all cases distinct; and whether, in view of the importance to the wholesale spirit trade in this country that this information should be given to the public, he can state the quantities of pot-still and patent-still whiskies produced in England, Ireland, and Scotland, in the years 1886, 1897, and 1906 respectively; and, if it is impossible to furnish this information for the past, will he issue orders for the facts to be ascertained and circulated in future.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. Asquith,) Fifeshire, E.No discrimination is at present made between pot-still and patent-still spirit, and consequently no departmental records exist from which a Return of the kind named could be made for past years. If legislative authority were given, it would be possible for the Department to keep a record in future of the quantities of spirit distilled by pot-stills and patent-stills respectively. But such a record would afford no evidence of the relative quantities used for potable and other purposes respectively, still less of the relative quantities used for a particular spirit, such as whisky, and other potable spirits. For the total product of patent-stills is applied only partly to purposes of "drinking" spirits, and the distribution of such part, as is so applied, between the several classes of potable spirits, gin, whisky, compounds, etc., cannot be determined.
§ MR. MYER (Lambeth, N.)Can the right hon. Gentleman inform us which is the least injurious kind of whisky?
§ MR. ASQUITHI have no information as to that.