( Ireland.)— Eighth REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS [ Excife No. 12. The Examination of SAMUEL HOOD, Esq. Assistant Examiner of Excife; taken on Oath, the 25th and 28th days of November 1808. This Examinant faith, That charges are frequently returned against Traders, which from various caufes are irrecoverable, or owing to the fpecial circumflances of the cafe ought not to be enforced. Such of thefe chargcs as are not in the firft inftance paid by the Trader, are brought to account againft the Collector, who claims to have them placed under the head of Arrears. When any charge, after it has been inveftigated by the Com- mifiioners, is abated, whether it be on the application of the Trader, or to relieve the Colle6tor's Accounts from Arrears confidered to be irrecoverable, the Board of Excife has been in the habit of directing the ColleCtor of the diftriCt to deduCt the amount out of the produce of fome branch of Excile chargeable in fome future Voucher, or ft a ted in fome future Quarterly Account, or generally from the ftated produce of the quarter, and Examinant to allow him a like credit in his certificate to the Accountant General. Thefe deductions are moft frequently direCted to be made out of the produce of future Vouchers. In fuch cafe, if there be fufficient produce accruing within the diftritt of the fame denomination of Duty as that in which the abatement has taken place, the deduction is ufually directed to be made from fuch produce, otherwife from the produce of fome other head of Duty; or if any one head of Duty fhould not be confidered as fufficiently productive, from the produce of feviral, the order fpecifying them refpeCtively ; or fometimes from the produce of any future Voucher. In fuch cafes the ColieCtor returns the Voucher to Examinant, with the fum for which credit is to be allowed, deduCted out of the produce, and a reference to the order of the Board in purfuance of which fuch de- duction is made. The ColleCtor debits himfelf with the net amount of the chargc only, fo that the tranfaCtion does not appear on the face of his Account, but ic is his duty to receive the full amount from the Trader, unlefs the abatement had been made in favour of the fame Trader, to whom, in confequence of his having previoufly paid the charge fo abated, an allowance to a like amount had been ordered. Such previous payments do notappear to have been uniformly enforced by the ColleCtors, in cafes where the Trader has conceived himfclf entitled to have the charge abated, and in rhe Account of Credits, amounting to . 55> 3 17- ^ s. io£*/. ftated by Exa- minant to have been allowed to ColleCtors on account of abatements of charges in the year ending 5th January 1808, the greateft proportion was deducted from future Vouchers. There are few inltances of orders for allowances or repayments to Traders; but under orders lately iffued by the Board, ColleCtors are required to enforce payment of all Charge?, notwithflanding any claim of abatement made by the Trader. When repayments have been ordered, no receipt or other Voucher is returned to Examinant, nor, as he believes, to any other Officer, to fhew that the Duty had been repaid by the ColleCtor. Examinanc makes no entry of the amount deducted from the Voucher in the Account kept by him of the produce of each branch of Duty, nor includes it in his Quarterly Certificate to the Accountant Ge- neral, nor are the orders of the Board, nor any account of the deduction or credit fo allowed, tranfmitted to him by Examinant, nor, as he believes, by any other Officer. The mode of deducting the charge that has been abated from the ftated produce of the quarter, is more fimple and more convenient, when the credit to be allowed amounts to a large fum, than to fubcraft it out of a number of Vouchers; there does not appear to be any material difference between the two modes, fome Col- lectors fhew the deduction when made in this latter way on the face of their Ac- counts, but they are not required to do fo by the terms of the order, and the refulc is che fume as if the deduction was made from the produce returned in the Voucher, the ColleCtor being charged with the net amount only. Fredk Geale. Robert Alexander. Chas S. Hawthorne. Saml Hood, Asst Examr Excise.