§ Mr. FFRENCHasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether the funds at the disposal of the Development Commissioners are sufficient for arterial drainage and the improvement of piers, harbours, and roads in Ireland, besides subsidising tobacco growers; and, if not, will he consider the claims of Irish tobacco growers for a generous contribution from the Treasury, more particularly as money given by the way of subsidy will be doubly repaid in revenue; and (2) whether he is aware that the growing of tobacco in Ireland was a remunerative industry in former years; that the Government of the day taxed it out of existence; that, owing to a recent Government subsidy, tobacco growers had increased from one in 1904 to 130 in 1910; whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Government received a revenue of £11,785 last year as against £736 in 1905; and whether, in view of the fact that this continued increase would amply repay the Treasury for any outlay they saw fit to make, he will be able to see his way to increase the present subsidy for tobacco growing in Ireland?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEMy right hon. Friend is acquainted with the history of the tobacco growing industry in Ireland and with its recent condition as indicated by the figures which I gave in answer to the hon. Member for East Clare on the 7th March. The sufficiency or insufficiency of the funds at the disposal of the Development Commissioners for any purpose must depend on the sums which it is proposed to spend for that purpose. The growing of tobacco in Ireland presumably does not tend to increase the consumption of tobacco, nor consequently the duty paid thereon, in the country taken as a whole.