The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-03-07 00:00:00

BONDING OF BRITISH MALT.

The maltsters having met, and passed resolutions in
favour of bonding British malt, forwarded the same to
the Right Honourable William E. Gladstone, the Chan-
dellor of the Excheque?,. who, iri Miswer; haslorikarded
them the following reply :
" Downing-Street, Whitehall, -Feb. 29, 1860.
SlB,—With reference to your letter. of yesterday,
-enclosing copies of certain resolutions passed at a meeting
of maltsters, I am directed by the ,Chancelloclof the Ex-
ehequer to inform you that though he does not see in .what
way it could be arranged to bond British malt,, yet it is
quite open to the trade to enter into communication with
-the Board of Inland Revenue
.on'- the, subject.: In the
meantime, her Majesty's Government will propose. a
duty of 25s per quarter on malt imported frorteabroad,
an amount which they think makes ample allowance for
any advantage which may accrue to the im?erters from
the power of b9ll4ins,—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
"JAS.' P.. STVART WORTLEY."

THE PAPER DUTY.

The following is the substance of the report of the
Commissioners of Itiland-Revenue -to -the Treasury on
. the repeal of the paper duty. , It is dated March 1 :
"Your lordships are aware that the intervention of
-the excise officer takes place at a paper mill, for the first
time;lastrerttirraper is ready-to-be-sent our:- Icig then
his business to weigh it, to charge the duty according to
the weight, and to place round the reams labels and
i
wrappers denoting that the charge has beets made,
and distinguishing them. front auch,,as (lava rof beef
brought under_ his inspection. .
"These simple regulations leave ilie,- paper-maker
coiparatively free to adopt the bed and most economical
*des of working, and he can scarcely 'aissrt, as the
inaltsters and distillers dos that the eaSt ctProdustiem is
„increased, or the quality of the manilla tared, article
1 ampaired, -by s the. fetter's imposed Upon - him for. fiscal
,Purposes.
-. . • . ,
E 'We considered it. right to point out this distinguish-
ing characteristic of the 'paper duty, as an 'important
coiasiderlitiOn in any discussion respecting the maintens
ante of it as a source of revenue, and as being a matter
of 'which few persons besides these practically conversant
with the operation of the revenue laws could- be' expected
t have any knowlege. But our observations were
pli ittescis oinf
re not intended to convey any opinion upon the wider
fq estion whether the general effects of the duty were or
tmhiasnounfaectpuoreintirno;O:zyc,intilletefgreueidaetimohNoi-ranthde
w re not as. pernicious as had been represented by the
1
a ,y,rhiirtds repeal.report however (that of hut year), we
"InateBourfot
re compelled. to draw your lordship's; attention to
t e very great and increasing embarrassm'en'ts in
which we were involved' ins telletting , this tax.
av
1 e pointed -eat that. this gati4 of things was attri-
li table in a great. Measure to the condemnation of
t 1
e duty by a resolution of the Howe of Commons ;
aid we might, perhaps, have added, that the
.e; its of
'thich we complained had been accumulating for many
-ars previously, under the prevalence of a general
iippression that the duty-on paper _would be given up on
te very first available- opportunity. 'We mideavottred
to show have impossible it Was tinder th,esecire.unisinhces.
to apply to Parliament for power to subject he* branches
of the trade-to excise regulations, and at the same time
how unjust it wits ko 'allow to one an exemption from
that ditty 'and antwey, which alone prevented a rival
branch from successful competition in the market.
''‘ As an example, we -selected. the' case' of the card-
makers-and-the--pasteboard-makers ; we might have
specified several others, which have lately been brought
Oa your.lordships' notice.
" Without :going into the details '(which are to be
found in ,pages 13 and 14 of nth- Third Annual Report),
it may be sufficient Id state that card-makers are exempt
fkom excise survey while pasteboard-makers are subject
its I't±-that-the distinctiouhetween the articles-produced
liy the two traders is merely nominal, and that it is'
Scarcely an exaggeration to say that -we are- levying a
duty on A, syhile we allosyslit to send out goods, pre-
cisely similaf in nature, watlitt achy infierPerence. from
the revenue 'Other. "
"It may said that the remedy is, either to' place
the eardsmakers 'finder survey, or to exempt the paste-
boar' makers - but besides- the reasons above referred
to, which prevent us ,frOm'adopting the former alterna-
tive in a case -of paer 'duty, we mast frankly own that
we believe it to be impossible at the present day to,
. ' 'supervisiontheexciseman
subject to the of any class
Of traders who have hitherto been free from it and; On
the other hand, if the pasteboard-makers were, to be
declared exempt, we, should hate to encoilnter the, loud
and. well-fortudet. complaints or theli . rivals, those
paper-makers, namely, *ho ,niake pasteboard at their
mills, and Who are necessarily under excise survey, so
long as a duty oil paper exists.
. "The pasteboard-Makers ug,ain.cothe beforenis in the
character of injured parties, when they compare the
treatment which they receive with that of thesscaleboard-
maker. pasteboard, it seems, is the natural rival of
scaleboard. Left free from extraneous influences, these
two articles might: perhaps maintain the struggle
for supremacy without - any decided ' advantage on
either side; but the weight of excise duty and
'survey, which is brought to bear ilpoil' pasteboard
alone, gives to scaleboard an easy triumph in the very
same field in Which pasteboard formerly obtained the
preference. clioxes; for instance,' of various kinds; and
especially hat-boxes, were originally made of pasteboard,
r a more suitable material , fors-the. purpose than scale- ,
board. Since the duty his been levied on the former,
. and not on the latter, a trade which entirely supported a.
large Manufactory near Oxford has ceased to exist ; and
it is asked, not without reason, whether it is, just to select
arbitrarily for taxation one of two articles so similar in
; their naturtssand-in the purposes te- which they are
. applicable.
,s , • ~..
' "The grievances of the pasteboardlniakers do not end
here. They appear rain..-•with the more important
- complaint that the duty.' on pasteboard is seriously
detriniental to the exporters of certain light manufac-
hires which are packed in ornamented boxes for the
foreign market, and that it actually has 'the effect of
compelling the. British Merchant to import for this pur-
pose boxes made in Germany, instead of using those
made at home. ,
" Your lordships are -aware that no drawback can be
' given in such a case, because, in the first place, the
amount of dhty originally paid on the paper composing
the pasteboard cannot be ascertained, and in the second
place, supposing that an approximate- rite, could be
flied dpon, so as to obviate this difficulty, it would-still
be impracticable to obtain the tare of such boxes when
filled with -goods ready for shipment. That a close
examination would be necessary, is proved by the re-
markable fact-that an applicant. on this subject recently_
forwarded to us a box as a specimenofthose which he used,
and - Which -turned out to be made of scaleboard, an
article on which, as before observed, no duty is levied.
The duty, therefore, on pasteboard boxes, and on slips
of pastebbaid- on which certa:h goods ar3 wound, or
to which they are, attached, is a burtheri from which
our 'manufacturers cannot be
,relieved s) long as the
duty on paper is maintained, and is no doubt, as
alleged by them, an impediment in the close compe-
tition which they encounter in the foreign and, colonial
markets. Their endeavour to escape from the difficulty
by importing foreign boxes (subject at the , Custom-
house to an ad valorem duty, which is not an equivalent
to that of the excise), while it affords but an' imperfect'
remedy to the exporters, is an additional cause. of com-
plaint against the unequal operation of the revenue
laws from the makers of paper and pasteboard in our
own,,sceuntry,-,• , .. .
"the abdve instances are some of those which have
been most reeently pressed upon our notice, as illus-
trating the unequal-incidenee of, the paper duty, and we
have found it impossible either to deny the existence of
the evil complained of or to suggest any remedy short
of the entire repeal of the duty.
" Numerous other examples might be adduced of the
same unhappy
,effect from this tax; but the explanations
necessary to make them intelligible would lead us into
too much detail for our present purpose. We content
ourselves with reminding your lordships of the incessant
demands of the stationers to' have the same drawback on
the waste cuttings of writing paper as is allowed on the
ctittings.of envelopes, of the impossibility of granting
this Without opening the door to the payment of draw-
back upon every piece of paper produced for that
purpose, and of the absurdity to which the conces-
sion ' would thus reduce us. ' Your lordships may
remember that. all our difficulties in this respect have
arisen from an attempt to restore the balance between the.
envelopes made - at a paper mill and_ those! made by
stationers disturbed, as it was to the disadvantage of the
latter by their waste cuttings being,subject to the'duty,
while those occurring at the mill are reconverted into
pulp before the charge of duty is made. It is impos-
sible to deny that the principle on which we thus acted
is of more extended application ; but we-have elsewhere
fully explained to your lordships how impracticable it
would be to attempt to carry it into effect.
" Equally difEcult. it is to defend- upon principle
the subjection Of artificial parchment to the paper
duty, while 'the true Parchment is free ; yet it is
absolutely necessary to maintain (as we did in the
Court of Exchequer) that .a process of manufacture
admitting
_of no other description than that which
would be - given of paper making, must be, treated
precisely as paper making, and it is clear that .the aban-
donment of our- claim
P for • duty in the one case would
necessarily lead to the same result in the other. We
therwisetfladly have' abstained from interfering
should o , , .
production, which we
h this new an ingenious . fear
with i
by the judgment which
his been - entirely suppressed ,
placed it under the revenue laws.' ,
,• 7 r

MDLLE. PICCOLOMINL—The Irish papers deny that
lldlle. Piccolomini has been united in the holy bonds of
gratifying
matrimony since her arrival in Dublin.
to
gress in the metropolis. , It has now reached the
THEfind thatß SClLmovement c Et
int EuNe .t.; make great pro-
Banking Interest in good earnest, and is likely to prevail
in shortening the hours of business—at least on one day
, of the week.- We find the follovKing notice of its influtnce
in the city article of the Mornag Heraltiofi 34sthrdai :---
" It was announced this afternoon that the committee of
private bankers have agreed to give a favourable con-
sideration to the proposed closing at two o'clock, P.T11.,
on Saturdays, and that they have adjourned for a week,
with the view of receiving in the meantime an
exprosion 9f7;opinion from the joiat,stock,hanks on the
subject. There seems every reason to anticipate that
this will be satisfactory, inasmuch as, the propriety 'of
the prq,iding is generally: acknOwledged, and tile
great in believe that, the business can be faci i-
tated so as to allow the change'. to,. take place without
any inconvenience, •• - - •