A reference to the figures quoted in my opening address will show how enormously this charge on the revenue of the Colony has increased in recent years: it now amounts to but little short of one-sixth of the total revenue. It was represented with much force by the Unofficial Members that, apart from the gravity of the burden imposed on its resources, the Colony is subjected to the serious disadvantage of being unable to forecast its liabilities by reason of the contribution being fixed in sterling while the variations in exchange prevent the estimation with any approach to accuracy of the equivalent in dollars; and it was contended that if some such inconvenience must necessarily fall on one of the parties to the transaction, it ought in fairness to fall on the one that receives the contribution, and not on the one that makes it.
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