, 1893-02-18

law would do, he would say, that if you take
the returns of the last 10 years from The Elk
port duty, you will find how much they vary,
and We ali know that the oldest inhabltant
of the Islam had never Witnessed such a coll
tinuance of 10 years of good weather, such az
we have had but then take tho z last years
and you Will SOC how things can change; and
then you must we'll bear in mind what His
Excellency said, we can never expect any
help from the Mother Country, If the revenues
prove insufficient, (the Governor: 1t is So and
they will be so for certain and he would
now beg to ask His Excellency when tho
Colony comes to a crisis, will the colony get a
loan from the Mother Country? In the Eng
lish Islands we see them getting loans at 8
or 81 per CT. We get nothing of the sort
the colony ie left to itself; and il we do not
got average years and average revenue, we
must 90 to the wall. He would insist, that
this Budget is a most extraordinary one, and
the situation one of o most serious nature;
we see the depreciation Of property every
dav; ana in the face Of the treatment which
the Council has met and the state OF the Is
land, he proposed not to discuss this Budget
but have a Committee Of i've to frame resolu-
tons showing the reasons why the Council
has taken this extraordinary step.
The Gorernor: When tho coloay has inths
mannel proposed obtained a balanced bud
get, 40 further help can be expected from
the Mother Country for the situation will
be such that We can reasonably be expected
to stand on our own legs. But if it should
be- needed to take recourse to loans, there will
be nothing to prevent our obtaining such; but
OF course these loans must be repaid.
Bird Member for Frederiksted's Country Dis
trict (Hewitt): Can the colony get q loan to-
day if wanted But that is not the main
poiat, when all the best, the staple revenue
Of the colony il engrossed for Government
aud Military, what is to support ali the other
equally as necessary branches Of the public
administration in years to come, after we
have got chat municipal law? He and every
one i'll the Island hoped that that lew would
never be passed, but the question is again,
what is to be the final outcome of the present
situation? And here he would maintain that the
situation is serious and the Budget very extra
ordinary, 50 extraordinary that we can not any
longer continue to go in for a show of having
passed it, earecially if the best revenue be
taken aw ~.
The Gocernor; The honorable Member
may say and maintain what he likes; but
when the honorable Member seem to say
that tie best and sureSt revenues are to be
deprived the colony, that is an assertion not
consistent with reality.
2nd Member for Frederiksted's Country
DISCREET (BiuctVood): The question of the
rights given by tue Colonial Law has BEEN a
riddle to him. In reading the Law it appeared
to him a lenient law, giving the rights Of a
Legislative Body to this Country. If that is
the case, we,as Legislative Body and represen-
tatives of the people AMI the tax payers, ought
to have Il say in the aft IRIS If the colony apd
the administrative Organise tons; and if this
is so why then has the Colonial Councils
votes Oh The several items of the Budget,
which had to pass its vote, been ignored for
the last years? Year before last q Com
mittee was appointed to disseot. the Budget
and propose reductions theCommittee work
ed asSidiously and spent. much time and Ia
bour in Preparing q proposal 10 submit to the
Council she Colonial Council adopted the
proposals but they we're ignored in every
sense of the word. At a subsequent stage we
were told by His f lcellenoy that the Codn-
Gil had undertaken something to which the
Council had no authority and Government was
not willing to act. This could Of course not be
in those cases where the Colonial Council by
law has Il say, certainly not. But if we really
had gone beyond the mark of authority
whose fault would it have been? Certainly
not the Councils. The Council had decidedly
the right to discuss anything and to vote on
what was brought in for vote under ths law;
L II - II