278 



THE MALT TAX 



EXTRACTS FROM MAJORITY 

 REPORT. 



portant that legislation is not 

 required to deal with 



* The Deputy Principal of the 

 Inland Revenue Laboratory (Mr. 

 Banister) stated in his evidence 

 that " as the Revenue Authorities 

 protect the public against the use of 

 hurtful materials, there does not 

 appear to be any necessity for alter- 

 ing the present system under which 

 beer is brewed and sent into con- 

 sumption ! " 



EXTRACTS FROM MINORITY 

 REPORT (MR. READ'S). 



number of preservatives and 

 antiseptics in the market, the 

 action of which on the human 

 system is, in the majority of 

 cases very little understood, and 

 this number is increasing every 

 year. As long as the brewer is 

 allowed to use whatever he pleases, 

 this, to my mind, constitutes a real 

 and grave danger. 



At present the public have no 

 adequate protection against the 

 use of deleterious substances in 

 the manufacture of beer. 



It would be neither difficult 

 nor vexatious to enforce such 

 legislation as would ensure to 

 the purchaser his right, when 

 he asks for beer the National 

 beverage to obtain a beer 

 brewed entirely from malt and 

 hops. 



One of the arguments frequently used by the brewers* 

 party during the period that this inquiry was going on was : 

 That no substitutes were used. This fiction was effectually 

 disposed of by directing attention to the thousands of pounds 

 spent by the manufacturers of substitutes in advertising their 

 goods in the brewing journals. Another argument was : 

 That without the use of substitutes they could not brew a 

 liquor that the public demanded. But it was pointed out 

 that the largest brewer in the country brewed from malt and 

 hops only, and that in 1895 4893 small brewers used no 

 substitutes.* As to the view that they could not sell what 

 they wished to sell, Sir William Harcourt stated the position 

 exactly (page 274) in the debate on the second reading of 

 the Bill. | These arguments with effective replies might be 

 reproduced for many pages, but they are all contained in the 

 Minutes of Evidence given before this inquiry, and no one can 

 carefully read this Blue Book without coming to the con- 



* Stopes' replies to Questions 3259, 3801, Beer Materials Committee, 

 t Stopes' replies to Questions 3291, 3749, Beer Materials Committee. 



