488 Journal of Ar/ricultiire, Victoria. | 10 Aug., 1916- 



3. During my visit to Loudon in 1912 the Principal of the Govern- 

 ment Laboratory, Sir James Dobbie, informed me of the progress mad& 

 in the computation of the revised alcohol tables, and subsequently Mr.. 

 Cheater and Mr. Holmes afforded me detailed information of the proce- 

 dure followed in the numerous recalculations, carried out with extra- 

 ordinary accuracy, involved in the preparation of the new tables from 

 the original alcoholometric investigations of Sir Charles Blagden, Gilpin, 

 Drinkwater, and Mendeleeff. 



4. The change to the new tables will materially affect the incidence 

 of the wine duty, which is fixed in Great Britain at the limit of 30 per 

 cent, proof -spirit, as the dividing line between the higher and lower rates 

 of duty. 



5. The 30 per cent, proof -spirit dividing line between the higher and 

 lower rates of duty was adopted by the British Government on the recom- 

 mendation contained in the report of the Select Committee of the House 

 of Commons on the wine duties presented to Parliament in 1879. The 

 Committee, in it® report, mentioned that the dividing line which then 

 obtained of 26 per cent, proof-spirit between the higher and lower rates 

 of duty on wines had been fixed " to facilitate the consumption of 

 genuine wine, under provisions insuring the necessary safeguard against 

 importation of spirit in the guise of wine, to the detriment of the duty 

 on spirits. With that view, 26 per cent, was fixed as the limit of the 

 alcoholic strength of wines called natural." Evidence was given before 

 the Committee contending that Australian wines were naturally of a 

 higher strength than 26 per cent, proof-spirit. The principal witnesses 

 were Sir H. Blyth, Agent-General for South Australia ; Mr. P. B. Bur- 

 goyne; Sir H. Barclay, sometime Governor of Cape Colony; and others. 

 Adverse evidence was given by Mr. A. Lalande, President of the 

 Chamber of Commerce, Bordeaux, and by Mr. W. H. Burston, South 

 Australia, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Committee. 



6. The Select Committee concluded its report by recommending that 

 the standard of strength of wines be raised so as to admit of Australian 

 wines entering at the lower rate. 



7. The British Government, acting on the recommendation of the 

 Select Committee of 1879, raised the degree of strength at which wines 

 were admitted at the lower rate from 26 per cent, up to 30 per cent.^ 

 and it has stood at the latter figure ever since. 



8. During the past two years a number of samples, representative 

 of bulk shipments of Australian wine to London, have been tested in the 

 Commonwealth I^aboratory. The samples are averages, and representa- 

 tive of shipments comprising at least 1,475 hhds. and quarter-casks, the 

 contents of which were approximately 69,000 gallons. The same casks 

 from which the samples were drawn in Australia prior to shipment were 

 also sampled by the Officers of Customs and Excise after arrival at the 

 London docks, and tested in the Government Laboratory, London, under 

 arrangement agreed to by the Board of Customs and Excise. 



9 The tests of these Australian wine im.ports conducted in the 

 Government Laboratory, London, are, in general, in good agreement 

 with the tests of samples drawn from the same casks in Australia prior 

 to shipment. (See Table I., appended hereto.) The differences observed 

 are, in the majority of instances, lower readings for strength to the 

 extent of about 0.5 per cent. In five cases only has an increase in 

 strength been recorded in London ; in four of these the difference falls 



