The Budget estimate for 1927-28 was £5,800,000, but the actual receipts were substantially greater, being £6,120,000. It is possible that the revenue from this duty gained on account of the weather conditions in 1927, attendances at indoor entertainments being increased to a greater extent than attendances at outdoor entertainments were reduced.

The figures in the table below relate to Great Britain only, and therefore differ from the figures for the years prior to 1922-23 in Tables 3 and 6, which give the receipts in the United Kingdom as a whole.

TABLE 81.-Entertainments Duty: Net Receipts. (a)

(a) Figures for United Kingdom for 1921-22 and earlier years are shown in Tables 3 and 6.
(b) Rates of Duty altered. (See Table 127.)

BETTING DUTY.

The Finance Act, 1926, imposed as from 1st November, 1926, an Excise duty in Great Britain on every bet made with a bookmaker on an event of any kind. The standard rate of duty was 3 per cent. of the stake, but a rate of 2 per cent. was applied to a bet on a horse-race where both bookmaker

and backer were present on the course.

The Finance Act, 1927, extended the 2 per cent. rate to cover any bets where the backer and the bookmaker are present at a sporting event and the bets relate to that event or to events of the same kind.

Every person carrying on the business of a bookmaker is required to take out a bookmaker's certificate at a duty of £10 per annum, and, in addition, an entry certificate at a duty of £10 per annum in respect of any betting premises kept or used by him. The 1926 Act defines a bookmaker as meaning "any person who, whether on his own account or as servant or agent to any other person, carries on, whether occasionally or regularly, the business of receiving or negotiating bets, or who in any manner holds himself out or permits himself to be held out in any manner as a person who receives or negotiates bets," and betting premises are defined as meaning" any premises which are kept or used for the purpose of making, receiving or negotiating in any manner whatsoever bets on credit, or which are in any manner held out as being kept or used for any such purpose.'

The Betting Duty Regulations, 1926, issued under the authority of the Act, prescribe the method of collection of the duty. Bookmakers are allowed to pay the percentage duty in advance by the purchase of official revenue tickets, or in arrear by giving security and rendering weekly remittances for the duty together with returns of the bets made.

The Budget estimate for 1927-28 was £6,000,000, this being the figure originally estimated for a full year's revenue when the duty was introduced in 1926. The receipts in 1926-27, which covered only the five months November, 1926, to March, 1927, i.e., a period of the year when racing is at a minimum, amounted to £835,000 and the receipts for 1927-28 amounted to £2,669,000. Details are given in the following table.

MEDICINE STAMP DUTY.

This duty is leviable, subject to certain exemptions, on any medicine sold or exposed for sale which is, or purports to be, either a patent medicine or a proprietary medicine or a secret medicine, or which is held out or recommended as a remedy for any ailment of the human body. The following table shows the yield of the duty during the past five years. The number of licences issued to makers or vendors, and the yield of the licence duty, are shown in Table 107.

TABLE 83.-Medicine Stamp Duty: Net Receipts.

A stamp duty is levied on playing cards (other than toy cards not exceeding 13 inches in length or 11 inches in width), at the rate of 3s. 9d. per dozen packs if imported, and 3d. per pack if manufactured in this country. Each pack of cards must be enclosed in a Revenue wrapper before being delivered from Customs charge or from the card-maker's premises. A pack of cards is defined as meaning any quantity or number of cards not exceeding 52. Particulars of the yield of the duty during the past five years are shown in the following table. The number of licences issued to sellers who are makers of playing cards is shown in Table 89.

RAILWAY PASSENGER DUTY.

The railway passenger duty is imposed on passenger fares in Great Britain. The rate of duty on urban traffic is two per cent. and on other traffic is five per cent. Fares not exceeding minimum fares are exempt from the duty, "minimum fare" being the lowest fare normally charged to an adult or a child respectively for a single, a return, or a periodical ticket, as the case may be, for any journey.

The fall in revenue in recent years is due to a general decline in dutiable passenger traffic.

The low collection shown for Scotland is due to the amalgamation of the Scottish with the English railways under the Railways Act, 1921, most of the duty payable in respect of Scottish traffic being assessed and collected in England.

TABLE 85.-Railway Passenger Duty: Net Receipts.

Club Duty is charged upon a statement, which is required to be delivered in the month of January by the secretary of every Registered Club, showing the purchases of intoxicating liquor during the preceding calendar year. Until 1921-22 inclusive the duty was at the rate of 6d. in the of the purchases, but the Finance Act, 1922, reduced it to 3d. in the £. Statistics for ten years are given in the following Table. The comparatively high yield of the duty since the war is due mainly to the increased cost of intoxicating liquor.

The payment of Monopoly Value is a condition of the grant of a new justices' on-licence (except for wine alone or sweets alone) in England and Wales. As Monopoly Values vary in amount and are in many cases made payable by instalments, the amount collected in any year bears no relation to the number of new on-licences granted during the year. The majority of "licences granted " represent fresh grants where the term of a previous grant has expired. Statistics for ten years are given

in the following Table.