The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

THE HOP DUTY.

Every one who has paid the slightest attention to the
course of the hop question cannot fail to have remarked
that if thttuature and habits of that plant be erratic, its
growth uncertain, and its development precarious, the
career of those, who pursue its cultivation as a calling
exhibits not a few peculiarities of similar character. The
course of the hop planters has been " erratic" enough, and
not a little "uncertain." At one-time sinking under the
pressure of an enormous duty, they have been found
knocking at the door in Downing street, with earnest
vehemence beseeching a remission of the tax ' • at another,
when the burden has been somewhat, though scarcely less
oppressive, the cry has been for postponement of the duty ;
while a third season and abundant growth—that abundance
which in the case of all other produce is deemed by man-
kind a blessing—has sent them again suppliants to the
Chancellor of she Exchequer, boldly demanding to have
their calling altogether relieved fr 'm an impost the dire't
operation of which is to render the bonnty of Providence a
curse, and the success of the husbandman's toil a disaster.
A fourth occasion has found them again besieging the
Minister of the day for a partial redaction of the duty by
the repeal of the war tax, while "act the fifth" has ushered
in the proposal of an acreage duty, a system f bonding, or
some other scheme for shifting the load or alleviating its
pressure. And, as if to render the hop duty question a
special,case by itself, the curtain has sometimes drawn up
with act the sixth, displaying the extraordinary spectacle
(f a select class of hopgrowers pnsitively petitioning the
Chancellor of the Exchequer not to remove an atom of the
duty. Nay, though we confess we write down the words
with little hope of obtaining credence, planters have been
found to declare their readiness to pay a duty double
in amount rather than have a fraction taken off the
existing impost. These are plain facts, and under
such a state of things it is no matter of
surprise that, with 'the excepticni, of occasional
postponement, and in one special and imperative case of
entire remission, the prayers of the planters have remained
unheeded. Never adhering for two consecutive years to the
same demand—now taking up the question, now laying it
down—for a.few months "red hot" for one subject, only
to subside into quiescence for a subsequent idefinite period
—who can wonder that Ministers have listened to the com-
plaints of the planters, only coolly to dismiss them to their
homes to agree upon some practical remedy ? Chancellors
of the Exchequer have found relief from these appeals in a
cause which those unversed in the arcana of this question
would little dream of—namely, in seasons of short crops and
blight. In other productive occupations the very essence
of prosperity, the life-blood of success, is " a crop ;" with
the hop planter it is far otherwise ; a failure, whether by
storm or t light, is a perfect g-dsend ; a failure relieves the
planter from the claims for duty which a crop would entail,
and creating a scarcity, rapidly runs up, by a natural
sequence, the price of the article. The vessel "rights,'' and
the planters stealthily, slily, and with a half hope that their
defection may be unobserved, cease all appeals to Downing
street, suspend their complaints, and forego all claim or
attempt to procure emanc pation from the thraldom and
diauaknrmhinh.lmt a faw months aarl np 111.4
on their own confession, to the verge of bankruptry. Lot
those who have watched the course of the planters say
whether this be not a true picture. What is their posi-
tion at this moment? The "cold fl" bas lasted for a year
or two. Very high prices prevailed ; old wounds were
healed and wrongs were forgotten. Two seasons of
heavy growth—one of unparalleled abundance—have
since followed, and the pressure of the duty h•s begun
to tell. The " hot fit" is now on, and the plan
tern are once more about to renew their appeal to
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and to beg for time to
enable them to raise the oppressive levy which the
cotuirg men.h of May will call for. In a word, the
planters are going to Sir George Cornewall Lewis to pray
for a postponement of the May instalment of duty.
Having during last year paid a duty of some £BOO,OOO
for the crop of 1855, and prices having, owing to so
enormous a crop and to the subsequent large growth of
1866, fallen to an extremely low r.nge, the hop-planters
find themselves in no condition to meet the claims which
the Excise will in a few weeks make upon them in respect
of the first moiety of the duty on last autumn's crop, and
they are therefore about to present themselves to Downing-
street, suitors, in forma pauperis, for time."—Sussex
Advertiser.