Duty-Free Alcohol

Abstract

HOW far the trade in synthetic colours and fine chemicals has been lost to the country through the heavy customs restrictions placed upon the use of alcohol is a question which has been agitating manufacturers for many years past. On the one hand, we are told that the entire chemical trade has been diverted from our shores because of the high cost of alcohol; on the other, that the alcohol question has very little to do with the matter. After the agitation for the use of duty-free alcohol had been going on for some years, and owing to its increasing intensity and to the pertinacity of a few, the Government in the autumn of last year appointed a departmental committee to take evidence in order to find out whether the high duty on alcohol really was the factor which caused the practical extinction of the aniline dye industry and accounted for our inability to found an industry in fine synthetical products. The committee commenced to take, evidence on November 8, 1904, and finished on February 17 of this year.