, 1893-02-15

'ooISAN
3rd Member for Frederiksted's Co lntry
District lHe~itt:) We have just heard what
His Excellency said it was but a few short
remarks ftls Excellenoy made in introducing
this Draft of Budget, one Of the most extrS-
ordinary Budgets ever seen you will g
very far to find anything to equal it. To
look at this Draft in its full light, Sho wing q
deficit of upwards of $4,000 in the Govern
ments own figures, we must be at a total
loss to find any out ome for it; Government
shows us none; Government sums up the
total expenditure to S249, 1897 and tells uS we
can reckon barely on S139 900 to meet it;
tbs Government merely puts the Budget on
the Councils table, but does not show us
how the difference is to be met, the Govern
ment does not show us how property in the
Island is to be saw d from ruin, how the
colony is to exist under such a state of things.
tits, surely, one of the most extraordinary
proposals ever brought before a Body Of Men
like a Colonial Council. Here, property is
at = very low valuation money has disappear
ed mo resource available in falling crops
welE in his and the opinion OF most Members
his is one Of t g most serious meetings We
have had here IN Cove nnent house. We
have had indifferent crops and poor prices and
we have under the present prospects but u
very poor crop this year too; what is to take
place, what is to come? In our sister colonies
especially the British Islands, if a Budget be .
passed one year without meeting the expenses,
not O second year sees q recurrence Of that
. sort the Government has to propose measures
to meet the requirements. Now, hele, if we
20 OIL in the way we have been doing for the
last, say 10 Years. namely letting Budgets pass
this Council with immense deficits, who
is to pay in the long run2 First tune.
Government should have taken notice of the
fact, and should have devised means to cover;
but here it stares us in the facethat under the
growing troubles we shall sooner or'lNtc1 be
called on as taxpayers to pay these
deficits. But property here is. already taxed
almost beyond bearing; no more taxes can
. be borne by properties, and the heavy taxes
have brought the properties to their present
low value, SO that no purchaser can be found to
buy, and no one wiling to invest money at
all in prope ties here. Here and
these de.ioj are looked upon as a very
serious mltler he always took exception to
them, but ho W : told by Danes Of high stand
ing that his view was wrong, the Mother
County was paying and would pay the
deficits the Government never showed how
the deficits We're to be covered they never
sud The Mother country would pay them. and
not charge them to uS. We were told we
should but vote, still. he was always expecting
a day Of reckoning would come, when we.
. would be called on to ply them all. The Colo
NAL Law, when you look uponit as it is. appears
q very LIBERAL law if i we're carried out in good
faith and we had the full benefit Of it, it is q
question il We would have been in this d.
lemma at all; if we had had our full voice i'll
our affairs, we would scarcely have been as
we are now. But then, to return, if the
Mothsrcountry is to pay these colonial def
cts, why, let her pay yet. we have seen no
promise, no word to thai effect communicated,
still the deficits continued to increase year
after year then came the Municipal Bill
that opened our eyes that showed us the
way in which the deficits are intended to be
paid they have been all along charged to US
and now we appear debtors for a large sum
to the State Treasury. cit is expected that
this Bill will be carried arbitrarily against the
wish of the Colonial Council, against the wish
of the inhabitants, including some Of the
highest officials, exclusive only of the wish of
His Excellenoy. The idea IN that Bill was
to take $40, 900 Of the best and most reliable
items of revenue, to take them from off the
com .unal budget, leaving us with about
S40, 900 unreliable, uncertain and varying
branches Of revenue; those $780, 900 are to
support the Military Force, the Government
House Administration Clerks and some few
other officials, the smaller amount was to