§ Major CRAWFURDasked the President of the Board of Trade the number and value of optical and scientific instruments imported during the years 1913, 1922, 1923, 1924 and 1925; and the amount of duty collected on such under the Safeguarding of Industries Act for the years 1922, 1923, 1924 and 1925?
Mr. R. MacNEILLAs regards the particulars of imports for the years 1913, 1922, 1923 and 1924, I would refer the hon. Member to page 35 of Volume I of the Annual Statements of Trade of the United Kingdom for the years 1922 and 1924 Corresponding figures for the year 1925 are given in statement "A" below. As regards the latter part of the question, statistics of revenue collected under Part I of the Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921, are kept only in respect of each of the groups specified in the Schedule to the Act. The net revenue collected for the years 1922 to 1925 in respect of the two groups which comprise dutiable articles of the classes mentioned are given in statement "B" below. It will be observed that the classification for the purposes of the Statement of Trade and for the statistics of revenue is not identical.
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STATEMENT SHOWING THE REGISTERED IMPORTS OF THE UNDERMENTIONED ARTICLES INTO GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND DURING THE YEAR 1925. A. Description. Denomination. Quantity. Value. £ Scientific instruments and appliances (except electrical)— Dental, surgical, medical and veterinary instruments and appliances (except optical)— Instruments Value — 29,605 Appliances, including trusses and artificial limbs, but excluding artificial eyes. Value — 10,727 Furniture, aseptic hospital Value — 9,592 Other sorts, including general dental goods (except dental platinum). Value — 120,696 Photographic (not including lenses)— Cameras No 489,278 185,492 Cinematograph and projection apparatus (including magic lanterns). Value — 23,435 Sensitised photographic paper Value — 128,015 Sensitised photographic plates and films Value — 753,677 Blank film on which no picture has been impressed, known as raw film or stock. Linear foot of the standard width of 1 ⅜ in. 126,322,578 356,536 Exposed films— Positives, i.e., films containing a picture and ready for exhibition. Linear foot of the standard width of 1 ⅜ in. 43,660,774 233,953 Negatives, i.e. films containing a photo graph from which positives can be printed. Linear foot of the standard width of 1 ⅜ in. 9,314,028 689,312 Other photographic and cinematograph appliances, not elsewhere specified (excluding photographic chemicals). Value — 68,648 Optical instruments and appliances— Lenses, prisms, etc., optically worked, mounted or unmounted (including those imported or exported with complete instruments). No 8,428,134 234,704 Bodies for telescopes, microscopes and other instruments for holding lenses. No 1,275,343 81,392 Other scientific instruments and appliances— Precision balances Value — 8,825 Gauges No 36,051 23,259 Mathematical instruments Value — 11,634 Slide rules, calculating discs and cylinders Value — 3,410 Other descriptions not elsewhere specified — — 169,370 756W
B. — Year. Duty. £ Optical glass and optical elements, whether finished or not, micro-scopes, field and opera glasses, theodolites, sextants, spectroscopes and other optical instruments. 1922 79,233 1923* 98,112 1924 84,666 1925 86,318 Galvanometers, pyrometers, electroscopes, barometers, analytical and other precision balances and other scientific instruments, gauges and measuring instruments of precision of the types used in engineering machine shops and viewing rooms, whether for use in such shops or rooms or not. 1922 20,713 1923* 26,778 1924 29,872 1925 33,635 * As from 1st April, 1923, figures relate to Great Britain and Northern Ireland only.