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52
Coal and Wine Dues.—In the Session of 1889
the vexed question of the continuance or otherwise
of the London Coal dues was at last settled. Two
Bills dealing with the matter were submitted to
Parliament, one by Mr. Baring and Sir R. Fowler,
which proposed to continue the statutory duty of
thirteen pence per ton. The Vestry, in common
with many other rating authorities of the Metropolis,
petitioned in favour of this measure, being of opinion
that the dues were of a nature almost unnoticed by
the groat bulk of the population, and foreseeing
that the abolition of the duty could not benefit the
poorer classes of the community, who buy coal in
small quantities, and that the amount would in all
probability bo absorbed by the middleman, the
ordinary householder getting a higher taxation,
with no relief in his coal bill. The Government,
however, announced that it would take no steps
to continue the dues unless the London Comity
Council desired it, and the Council decided not
to seek a continuance of them, and therefore no
opportunity could be found to take the judgment
of the House upon the Bill. In July the
statutory duty of thirteen ponce would have died a
natural death, and it was understood that the City
intended to levy certain dues by the enforcement
of prescriptive and chartered rights, which they
held were merely suspended by the Act of 1831.
Sir J. Poaso, in May, moved the second reading of
a measure abolishing any dues that were leviable by
the Corporation after tho expiration of their
statutory powers in July, but assented to a proposal
of Mr. W. H. Smith that after second reading tho
measure should be referred to a Select Committee
with power to insert clauses to meet the equities of
the case, so far as the liabilities of the City and the
interests of the Metropolis were concerned. A
Committee, presided over by Sir Lyon Playfair,