HC Deb 31 March 1913 vol 51 cc55-6W
Mr. BIGLAND

asked the President of the Board of Trade, in reference to the Census of Production published last December, what proportion of the material used, which aggregate £1,028,000,000, is produced in these Islands?

Mr. BUXTON

The Census of Production Act only gives power to require, from persons liable to make returns, the aggregate value of the materials purchased for use in their productive work. Native materials cannot, therefore, be distinguished in the returns from imported materials. It is, however, estimated in the Report on the first Census of Production (Cd. 6320, page 26) that the imports of 1907 included goods for use as materials in the industries covered by that Report (i.e., excluding agriculture and fisheries), valued at £377,500,000 at the port of landing, or nearly 37 per cent. of the total referred to in the hon. Member's question. The remainder, £650.8 millions, is made up of: (1) Native raw materials, valued in the table on page 26 of Cd. 6320 at £99.7 millions; (2) the value added to the works value, or import value, of materials by transport and mercantile operations; (3) party manufactured goods serving as materials for further manufacturing opera- tions. So far as regards the last category, in which is doubtless included a large part of the sum in question, it is impossible to say in what proportions imported and native materials contributed to the value of the partly manufactured goods making up the aggregate, I may, perhaps, add that the value of imported materials is in part the result of the work of the British mercantile marine, since the declared value includes the cost of carriage to our ports.