, 1884-07-02

so 0Iu " hOO y ONNAA
District III. WisonI would hold that tho Q
very abuses which were anticipated to re-
suit from the original Draft will not be re-
mpdied by the proposed new version !; for
instance, IL property of l acre land might
be assessed to only II very few feet of TO I'd
work., the owner will receive exemption for
horse besides conveyanceS, while another
property having q very large portion Of
1onl wOsk might also receive compensation
only for l horse, because the owner has no
more. In other respects the law, ii it
emanated as it is now, would open the
chances of the same abuses as the first
Draft.
The Governor said it is q condition for
the Governments recommendation Of his
Draft for Royal sanction, that it be adopted
as passed at the 2nd discussion. He would
repeat that if owners of large properties
are to be exempted Of taxes on all their
horses and cOnveyances in consideration OF
the road.work allotted to them, he could
not see why the owner for instance OF |
acre of land should not enjoy the same
benefit, of course under the SuppOsitiOn that
he does perform road-wOrk. Such an own
er would also have Use for il horse, and for
him the tax would be of comparatively
much greater Importance than to the larger
prOprictors.
The Chairman would, as one of the Mem
bers of the Committee, beg 10 say that the
Bird Member for Christiansted WaSsard
had corr ectly stated the chief points OF the
agreement arrived at between His Excel
lency and the Committee this had also
been understood at the 2nd discussion
which took place shortly after the said
Committees meeting. The memory of the
honorable Member must have failed him.
3rd Member for FrederikSted's Country
District Wilson said as soon as he got
the Draft, he noticed the mistake and point
ed it out to another M tmber.
1st Member for Christiansted's Country
District Coulter had understood there
would be the two limits, 10 and 90 acres;
but now it is changed, and he could not
account for that change.
The Governor said the amendment to the
Draft had altered the proposal III the Hber-
al way, as stated by the honorable 5rd
Member for { hristianSted WaSSard
4th Member for ChriStianStedS Country
District (RaphaeN said he had never un-
derSto0d that the matter should be arrang-
ed as proposed, and rather than vote final-
ly for that change, he would prefer to pay
as hitherto, the taxes on his horses AMI
conveyances.
LIST Member for Chris iansted Willard
said that in his opinion if the Draft be pass
ed as the matter stands now there would
be very little difficulty to arise from the
exemption given to smaller properties for
! horse, when they perform road work. At
present there are not many such owners,
nor can we tell how many there might be
in the next decade; and the present num-
Der being so very small, it would appear to
be no matter of much consideration. AS
for renters Of land, they can Of course not
be entitled to any exemption, as the road
work will, as hitherto, be assessed on the
Estate itself; moreover, the SO-called squat
ter is no owner OF land whenever he be-
comes owner, he would get the exemption,
because he would then be entitled thereto.
To-day, however, there are hardly any who
would get exemption among the small pro
prietary classes.
4th Member for ChriStianSted'S Country
District Raphael would merely observe
that we are trying to make laws just for the
future. Under the present state OF affairs,
when things are going back with the plant
ers and estate-ownerS he is afraid we shall
soon see many estates selling land very
fast; there is already now a good begin
ming.
3rd Member for Christiansted WdssGrdl
would beg to point ont that the present
Draft is intended to last for 3 years, just
to allow the Administration time to gain
experience as to the working Of the mea-
sure proposed.