(32)
53707/36
Gon
1017/35
"
- 2 -
| 2
and a half million dollars. It was therefore decided with great
reluctance that the levy should be continued and sanction was
obtained for its continuance, for the first six months of this year, in a modified form estimated to produce a total saving for the whole year of $375,000 on the strict understanding that this temporary imposition should not be continued any longer than was absolutely necessary. The terms of your telegram No. 126 of 11th September, 1936, were sufficient indication that this
reluctance was shared by you.
4.
I am able to report that the financial position has improved to such an extent that my advisers consider it most unlikely that the year will end with a deficit, and that there
Secnis no reason to anticipate the necessity of relaxing the ten
"Currency
million dollar reserve limit to which Mr. Thomas' telegram No. 180 of 26th October, 1935, indicated provisional approval.
The total revenue collection for the first nineteen
weeks of the year shows an excess of more than $1,700,000 over proportionate estimates and already several of the main sources of revenue show indications of exceeding the estimates for the
year.
5.
In these circumstances I am of the opinion that the outlook is sufficiently hopeful to render the continuance of the levy beyond the end of June, 1937, unnecessary. I am also impressed by the fact that the total saving under the modified levy is a now comparatively unimportant factor in the Colony's expenditure and that its continuance is an irritation to officers of the Government service, a hindrance to the recruitment of new officers and a bad advertisement of the Colony's financial
standing.
6.
Public Works.
There is the further point that so long as the levy continues it is not easy to justify any policy of expansion in
These must of necessity be confined to the