, 1889-10-23

ON v " a StbUO GidClCC Ou dCCOUAS
OF its universal Importance, while the har.
bours of st. CrOix are left to the care of the
Community, those having only local im.
portance.- Section 3 preScribes that the
present Colonial Treasures shall be abo.
llSled, and that in their stead two COmmu.
nal Treasures shall be established, ono
for each community - Sections 4, 3, 6 81
prescribe in what way the colonial reVe.
nues and expenses shall be distributed
among the State Treasury and the Dom.
munal Treasures. The chief purport of
the proposed distribution is to provide for
each OF the two communal treasures rella'
Ole resources to such an amount that they
will prove sufficient to defray the commu'
nal expenses, such as they will be when
the change t'keS place, or, in other words,
to provide for each of the two communities
a balanced budget to begin with, so as to
avoid that they should at once fnd them.
selves in the necessity of raising new
revenues With this purport in view
the distribution of the revenues and ex.
penses has been made with due regard to-
the rules existing formerly as to the reven.
ues aud expenses of tue Statetreasury and
the Llnd Treasures, but it has been impoS.
sible strictly to adhere to those rules, as, in
case that were done, the communal bud.
gets would from the first show very heavy
deficits. In this respect it will be sufR-
Gent to state that if We take the colonial
Budgets for 1861 and apply to them the
rules existing before 1865, the Communal
Treasury of 81. CrOix would have an OK
pendlture Of............ .$67, 29l.26
with revenues amounting To- E'30, 342:82
or a deficit OFF,. $50, 948:44
Therefore it has not been POSSIBLE to fol.
low absolutely the old system, and it has
been necessary also to consider the rules
which are followed in the MOthercOuntry
in distinguishing between State matters
and Communal matters, and in doing 80
not to lose sight either Of some devlationS
necessitated by the quite exceptional DO.
sitiOn intended for the Colonial Councils
which are to retain their right of partici-
pating in the legislature on communal
matters, which privilege is not granted to
the Town Councils nor to the other com.
munal Assemblies in Denmark It would
further be seen that the rules followed are
not exactly the same in st. CrOix and St.
Thorn SO this difference is again caused
by the wish to provide a balanced budget
for each of the two communities certain
local peculiariti9s make themselves felt,
for instance the different character OF
the port of ST. Thomas from that of st.
OEOlA udTOOuTS IL IS natural That the
Statetreasury, considering this different
character, should take over the st. Thomas
port expenses, not the st. Croix Harbour
expenses. At the same time the revenues
from the port of st. Thomas are assigned
to the Communal Treasury, simply for the
reason of balancing the budget it is for
the same reason that the Ground and
Building Tax in St. Thomas is assigned
to the Communal Treasury, although from
its origin and nature, as also according to
the rules existing before 1865, it undOubt.
edly should accrue to the Statetreasury,
as Is the case i'll st. CrOix.-
Voucher | will show the application Of
the proposed distribution on the average
amounts of the Colonial accounts for the
4 years 1884.85-18S7-88. It will be seen
that there are assigned to the Communal
Treasures certain revenues and expenses,
the average amount of which is, for st
CrOlx, revenues. .................. @61, 1872. Is
expenses. .......... 1894 944.6 81
while the StdtetreaSury is proposed to take
over, for st. CrOix Revenues. 49,. 1874, 032.6 81
expenses. go ...s ..."136,857.73
Hence the Communal budget for st.
CrOix appears with a small deici6n but
this apparent result contains no deviation
from the main purport mentioned before;
that the communal budgets for the two
communities from the beginning shall bN