The Chamber desires to place upon record its opinion that "the principle of unrestricted and untaxed Trade which has always been recognised as the cardinal condition upon which the prosperity of the port depends, is vitiated under financial arrangements in which any portion of the proceeds of a tax ostensibly levied to provide lights for shipping, is diverted from the special service the maintenance of which is the only justification of the levy and is passed into the general revenue of the Colony.
The Committee would remark in reference to His Excellency's recent statement in reply to deputation of the Chamber, that the Colony cannot afford to dispense with any portion of its present revenue, the same being required for public works now in progress or projected, that even if the revenue be unequal to the expenditure, the exigencies of finance would not justify the maintenance of a levy which is admitted to be unjust and imposed is in principle, and is iniquitous.
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