§ Mr. GALBRAITHasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has had an opportunity of perusing the pamphlet giving the full reports of the decision of the Referee, appointed under the Safeguarding of Industries Act, relating to santonin, cream of tartar, and sugar of milk; whether he realises the disturbance to trade occasioned by these prolonged hearings, the uncertainties as to the result, and also the position of traders who hold stocks upon which duties have been paid as against those who can now obtain their stocks without payment of such duties; can he state what technical advice his Department took before inserting these commodities in the dutiable list; and, in view of the very large number of substances whose inclusion is challenged by the trade, will the Board of Trade obtain further technical advice to ascertain if some other procedure could be devised to avoid the present costly and prolonged proceedings?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSONI am aware of the judgments of the Referee regarding the articles mentioned. The hearings before him in two out of the three cases could hardly, I think, be described as prolonged, but there is naturally some temporary disturbance to trade and uncertainty in connection with such cases. The Board obtained technical advice from the Government Laboratory, the Patent Office, and other sources, and the relatively small number of complaints to be dealt with by the Referee seems to indicate that the lists of commodities which they issued were based on adequate technical information. There seems to be no occasion for adopting the suggestion contained in the last part of the question.