§ I now come to retailers' on-licences. With the public-house and beerhouse licences I have already dealt, as also with hotels, restaurants, and clubs, which come under the same category. Theatres will, as at present, pay the same rates as public-houses, but with a maximum of £50 instead of £20. In the case of wine, sweets, and cider, I propose to substitute for the present fixed duties (£3 10s. in the case of wine (including sweets), and £1 5s. in the other cases), a scale according to annual value in four sections, the steps being at £20, £50, and £100. The respective rates for wine will be £4 10s., £6, £9, and £12, and for sweets and cider one-half these rates. Under retailers' off-licences the same principle will be adopted, the rates for spirits will be £14 for premises under £20 annual value, £20 between £20 and £50, £30 between £50 and £100, and £50 above £100. The scale for the off beer licence (including cider and perry) will be £3 10s., £5, £7, or £10, according to the value of the premises, and for wine (including sweets) the same, but off-licences 531 for cider alone or sweets alone will cost only £2 irrespective of annual value. The new rates will be applicable to the whole of the United Kingdom, and the anomalies at present existing as between England, Ireland, and Scotland, as regards this class of licence, will be removed. As regards Scotland, there are various minor points in which the adoption of a uniform system throughout the United Kingdom will make a certain amount of difference, but the point which will attract attention is the modification of the conditions under which the retailers' off-licence for spirits is granted. In Scotland, at present, the holder of a grocer's spirit licence can sell wholesale, and can also sell in open vessels and in small quantities, whereas the English grocer can only sell in quart bottles or larger quantities. A great deal of business at present done by the holders of grocers' spirit licences in Scotland is really publican's business, that is to say, they sell small quantities of spirit in little glass noggins which are drunk outside the house and the glass noggin is left on the pavement outside. There is no doubt that a business of this sort is an abuse of the retailer's off-licence, and constitutes an abuse which ought to be suppressed. The present combined beer and wine licences will be abolished, and persons desirous of selling both beer and wine will in future have to take out two separate licences. The rate for passenger vessels will be increased from £5 to £10, the daily rate being raised from £l to £2, while railway restaurant cars, which do not at present pay any licence duty will pay £1. The charge for occasional licences will be raised from 2s. 6d. to 10s. a day for a full licence, and from 1s. to 5s. a day for beer or wine only. I propose that the new rates should come into force on 30th September next, subject to the necessary adjustments with respect to unexpired existing licences, and I estimate that the effect of the changes will be to increase the revenue of the year from licence duties by £2,600,000.
§ Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINIs that for the full year?
§ Mr. LLOYD-GEORGEFor the full year. As a matter of fact, I should rather anticipate a reduction than an increase in the second year. This will be probably a maximum year. As payment of these duties is made for the whole year in advance the full effect of the charge will be felt in the year in which it takes place. 532 Against this, however, must be set the prejudicial effect upon the yield of the spirit duties which may be expected to be produced should an effort be made (and I am not sufficiently sanguine to think that it will not be made) to shift the new burden to the shoulders of the consumer by reducing the quantity or quality of the spirits supplied. On this aspect of the question I shall have more to say at a later stage.