having applied for permission to distil, there appeared to be no reason why the prohibition should be continued; and that therefore the ordinance was passed giving the Governor in Council large powers in regard to the conditions under which a licence should be granted.
In their supplementary letter (2190) Jardine Matheson also say that, as they reported first, Bathing asserts that the bulk of their distillation is for export is contrary to the fiscal principles of the Home Government, and that as there is no authority under which the Governor can levy taxes in the Colony, the conclusion seems "inevitable" that the object of the fee for the licence to distil was not to add an source of revenue, but that the distilling should be carried on under strict supervision and that the expenses of supervision should be covered by the fee.
Jardine Matheson are not correct in this statement as to the taxation of spirits consumed in the Colony. There being a fee for licences to retail which produced in 1879 about $25,000 (a small sum indeed compared with the ...