, 1890-02-22

principle the Bill will also TO u greater ex-
tent than neceSsarydeprlve the Com mu-
nity Of liberties Ollce granted, 1t will even
confer upon t Il Oslo liai Ubuncil less au-
thority THANH he Burgller Council formerly
wa invested with. For in virtue of Orli-
nance Of 9th May 1855 the Government
could only exercise supervision OF the latter
Council, which otherwise admlnistratpd all
the municipal revenues and expenses of tile
island. And again even it The COtnmu-
nifty bv the BiIPS emanating IN law, would
Oe possessed of more independence and
greater rights than the municipalities OF
the Mother country, III SO far as the
Colonial Council would participate in le-
RiSlating OH municipal matters, it would
hold less favourable position than these
municipalities in other respects. The
Westindian COfouies. have not, and cannot
easily have q dolesoto In the Diet, but. as
. substitute the Colonial Law Of 1865.
allows the Councils the right, even if not
unconditional, to give their opinion on
Bills concerning the islands. 1t seems,
however, although the Council says this
withldifidence, that the Bill will deprive
the islands of this right. which, it is easily
understood, is highly appreciated, especial
~ as far as concerns Bills tending to i'm
pose. new direct or indirect) taxes.
Furthermore the Council thinks that it
will even be impossible for the Island to
defray it's expenses out of the revenues
allotted to it by the Bill. This remark does
not chiefly ailude to the fact that the NUM-
cipality will continue to be responsible for
the guarantee, for the Central Factory,
although this matter should be mentioned
too, for the Committee has reason to be.
lieve that the Minister Of Finances Will see
that the Colonial TreaSurv he exempted
from responsibility i'll this respect. But
even the Draft of eventual division Of the
revenues and expenses Ofthe Colonial Trea-
sWry, which accompanies the Bill and has
tean computed upon the averages of the
years 1884 50 to lS87-SS, shows II deficit of
&3,622.27, the Budgets for 1S8S-89 and
lSS9.90 would aS far Is can be Sc n, give a
minus OF respectively 35,86I.8J and
Al, 955.S SO, and there is every reason. to be.
lirve. that there will always be a deficit.
perhaps even al increasing Que. First on
account of Observation-Disclosures not
"eing able to work Sug tf estates with a
heavy tax like the absentee tax, and there's
fore dISpOslng OF their properties, the
said tax 8 is continually decreasing,
which has also during latter years been
the case with the quarter percent TAX. This
however, is less important, bnt what is
more SO, is that the principal item of re-
venue, the export-duty, on sugar, rum and
mOlasses, which yields almost half of al!
the revenues allotted to the municipality,
il exceedingly fuctuating anI therefore un.
suitable on a small Budget: the list accom-
Pauying this report as voucher No. 2 shows
that during the last "a years the minimum
OF the Tax has been 3l3, 042.0S. maximum
460,017.78. True enough the tax has, even
with the low prices of the last years. aver
aged $28, 900, but it has reached that
amount only on account of the exception
ally large crops, and it is to be- feared that
after the good years which the island has
bad since 1873, there will follow less good
ones, besides it can scarcely be hoped that
the sugar prices will be much higher; the
increase of last Summe err has again been
succeeded by a fall. And with low prices
and q bad crop the tax will not by far yield y
the amount calculated. #fe
Even it the present Bill before EN- mat ..
ing as Law were amended in such a way
that the revenues and expenses of the II
munich pality &ere just balanced, it is there.
fore to be expected that very soon the
question will arise, how a deficit is to be
covered, and the only manner, in which it !
can be done will no doubt be through i'm? !
posing new taxes. But after what has =
been remarked in the foregoing, the C III ~
ell doubts, If it is at all feasible to raise =
any considerable amount, and foresees
that lit will be impossible for the island
with ftS own resources tO maintain tho