102 



propbrtionable rise in the price of spirits to the consumer would be the con- 

 sequence. It would be desirable therefore that some modification of the 

 duty should take place. 



It appears from a calculation of Mr Jackson, that taking the price of 

 barley at 43s. a quarter, and of malt at 80s. a quarter, 116 gallons of corn- 

 wash (producing the same quantity of spirit as 2 cwt. of sugar) would, in 

 materials and duty, cost the distiller 10s. 4^d. per gallon, of which 7s. 

 lO^d. would be the duty to Government. Taking the price of sugar at 

 60s. per cwt. and reducing the duty on the wash to Is. 2id. per gallon, 

 the cost to the distiller would be 10s. lOd. per gallon, of which the duty 

 would be 7s. 10d., bringing the duty, under the proposed restriction, to 

 within a fraction of what it now is. 



The malt duty being much more easily evaded than the customs duty on su- 

 gar, which in fact is little, if at all eluded, it appears that that duty ought to re- 

 main as it is, and that the reduction ought to take place in the duty on the 

 vrash. There is, on account of the quicker dissolution of the material, a great- 

 er facility of fraud in the case of sugar than of corn wash ; but on the whole, 

 the chances of fraud would be diminished, the profit of it lessened, and 

 the loss to the Revenue, even if it were practised, would not be so great. 



Under these limitations, your Committee are induced by the evidence 

 ficfore them, to hope that the Excise regulations may be so arranged, with- 

 out 'great or inconvenient alteration, as to prevent any material injury to the 

 revenue from the proposed suspension. 



In Scotland, the system of collecting the duty is different and more com- 

 plicated. In the Lowlands, there is an annual licence duty of L.I 62 per 

 gallon on the contents of the still ; for which the distiller is permitted to 

 make 2,025 gallons of spirit within the year, the licence expiring whenever 

 that quantity appears to have been made. This duty amounts, on the gal- 

 lon of spirit, to Is. 7d. 2-iOths. There is a wash-duty of 5d. which, com- 

 puted at the rate of 16| gallons per cent, on the 100 gallons of wash, a- 

 mounts to 2s. Gd. 3-10ths ; and there is a spirit duty of Is.; the total being 

 5s. Hd. per gallon. 



The lower per-centage on the wash is occasioned by the rapid mode of 

 distillation which is imposed upon them by law, and which subjects them 

 to a constant waste of material, which they consider as a species of indirect 

 duty. Sugar, it appears, would be better adapted to their quick mode of 

 distillation than corn, as in the wash from the former there is no such re- 

 siduum as there is in the wash produced from the latter. There is, there- ' 

 fore, no reason to suppose that the same per-centage of 22 gallons of spirits 

 from 100 gallons of sugar wash might not be expected in Scotland as welt 

 as in England. As it would be advisable, for the reasons stated by Mr 

 Jackson, to retain the whole of the Customs duty on the sugar, it would 

 only be necessary to make a certain reduction in the duty on the wash, or 

 on the spirit. 



The present distinctions in favour of the Highland distiller (by which he 

 is required to produce only 10 per cent, on the wash, and is charged with 

 a duty amounting on the whole to 4s. 5d. per gallon of spirit, instead of ,5s. 

 .1 arose from an alleged inferiority of the material from which he works. 

 Under the proposed restriction (the material being the same as that used by 

 other distillers) the same per-centage of 22 gallons would of course be re- 

 quired. If it should be thought fit to charge the same amount of duty, it 

 *T3uld only be necessary to apply the principle before recommended. The 



