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Sewers have been constructed by Government, it is intended that they shall be maintained by Commissioners - appointed from among the principal inhabitants, who will be empowered by an Ordinance to raise the requisite rates.
Under the circumstances of imperfect information, the Estimate of £30,000 for the Civil Expenditure of the Colony during the current year, in Your Lordship's Despatch No: 25, did not very widely differ from that of £61,378 forwarded in my Despatch No: 73, of December 13th, but from the taxation having been nearly all imposed, and the leases made out since my arrival, I regret to say that the total receipts to the 28th December did not exceed £9,642.
Mr. Martin, in the Estimate for the year ending 31st March, 1846 (forwarded in my Despatch No: 73, of 1844) has included all the Public works that can be eventually required in the Colony, and, as one half of these cannot be performed in that year, his calculation must be considered as altogether extravagant and impossible.
The simplest, the most compendious, and most productive source of revenue would be an income tax of 3 per cent on the inhabitants of the Colony not in the public service, and being only equal to what is already paid by all those in the public service, it would at the same time be the most just; but without the authority of Her Majesty's Government, I should not deem it right