PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
LTC.O.882
| | | | Į↓ | | | | | | | | | | |||||
2
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDONÍ
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2
In the Mauritius the case is less favourable, inasmuch as the Crown,TM in 1849, gave up the power of charging the revenues by its own direct act. A small oligarchy, called "the Legislative Council," possess the power :— and in this Council the official members are a minority:—but the Crown can add new members. The Duke of Newcastle had at first directed that the increase should come into operation in 1863: but, in deference to the remon- strances of the Governor, Sir W. Stevenson, postponed it to 1865. The ground was, the expenditure then going on for the railways. This year Sir H. Barkly renewed the request for postponement, stating-
1st. That the expenditure on railways was not finished.
2ndly. That taxes which expire with 1864 would have to be renewed. 3rdly. That the garrison might be reduced.
To this I replied
1. That the Colony was wealthy and prosperous, and by the Imperial Legislature of 1864 (Sugar Duties) in the way of becoming more so; and that, to wait for the close of the railway expenditure would be pro tanto to throw the cost of those railways on the taxpayers of the United Kingdom. 2. That taxes must be imposed or continued here, if the expenditure were allowed to continue to be borne by this country.
3. That the Colonies which have representative institutions are to pay 401. for every Infantry-man of the line, and 551, for every Artilleryman: at which rate the Mauritius garrison would bear a very great reduction, and 1 therefore still the proposed charge would appear just and moderate. declined to accede to the further postponement: and instructed Sir H. Barkly, confidentially, that I hoped he would not be compelled to resort to the creation of members of Council: but that, if the necessity arose, no obstacle which he could legally surmount ought to prevent his carrying into effect a measure which the Imperial Parliament might justly expect Her Majesty's Government to accomplish.
Thus the case stands, at present, in Ceylon and in the Mauritius. Hong Kong resembles Ceylon in respect to the powers of the Crown. It differs both from Ceylon and the Mauritius in having been regarded by the Committee as a garrison rather than a Colony.
The last mail has brought me the intelligence that the Governor has carried in the Council the sum demanded, viz., 20,000l. a-year, by a majority of one vote.
The three non-official members and the Colonial Treasurer voted against it. Five official votes, including that of the Governor, carried the proposal.
I annex the despatch of Sir H. Robinson,* an able and resolute Governor.
The whole question of military contribution seems to divide itself conveniently as follows:-
1. The Australian Colonies,† in which the contribution is at present assessed at 401. for every Infantry man of the line, and in the Colony of Victoria at 551. for every Artilleryman.
2 The North American Colonies, with the question of whose defence
the Cabinet is now separately occupied.
3. The Cape command, which is also special, and about which I am
in correspondence with Sir P. Wodehouse.
4. The West Indies, where Lord de Grey and I are endeavouring to give effect to the recommendation of the Committee by reducing the
force.
5. The military garrisons; e. g., Malta, Gibraltar, Bermuda, &c.
6. The three Colonies now under consideration, Ceylon, the Mauritius,' and Hong Kong.
In dealing with this question, I would keep stendily in view as the terminus ad quem, that every Colony, properly so called, ought, when ca pletely established, to pay the cost of its own military defence, and though
• Printed as an Appendix.
+ Including New Zealand, but excluding Western Australia, where the troupe nae maintained') Imperial purposes.
3
I admit that this rule must have many exceptions, I see no ground for any exception in the case of Ceylon. I think that Ceylon, with a revenue of 700,000. or 800,000., can, like India, pay the whole expense of its garrison, and should be called upon to do so with that reasonable delay for which the Duke of Newcastle's plan has provided.
The garrison of 1,700 men now in Mauritius is no doubt partly Imperial. But the sum of 45,000l. is little more than the whole expense of about 500 officers and men--or than a contribution on the Australian scale towards the expenses of 1,000. The semi-Imperial character of the garrison is therefore fully allowed for. Nor is the amount more than can be well borne with a revenue of about 500,000l. per annum.
The whole expense of the troops to be permanently placed at Hong Kong will be about 100,000. The Duke of Newcastle's proposal charges only 20,000l. to the Colony. It may well be admitted (as the Committee of 1861 admitted) that the larger part of this garrison is maintained for Imperial purposes. Indeed, it must be admitted, if the Secretary of State is to be justified for asking for only one-fifth of the whole cost from this prosperous Colony; which, besides its military defence, is defended by Her Majesty's navy. The mother-country incurs a very considerable expendi- ture in the endeavour to suppress piracy in the immediate neighbourhood. The This expense is estimated by the Admiralty at 8,8761. per annum. Admiralty recently desired me to call upon the Colony to contribute to the expenditure specially incurred on this account: but I objected on the ground that this question of contribution to the expenditure of the War Department was still open and unsettled.
The Governor and the Colonial Secretary have in former despatches referred to the neighbouring Colonies of Macao, Manilla, and Java. I think those who live under the British flag have little to gain by insti- tuting any such comparison in regard to the contribution which the mother-country requires from the Colony. They might have referred to the neighbouring Settlement of Singapore, now under the Government of India.
This Settlement is anxious to place itself under the Colonial Department upon the terms of casting no charge, military or civil, upon the Imperial Exchequer,
The Governor and the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, in their ***find the remonstrances, have stated that the residents of Hong Kong Colony singularly profitable, and are but lightly taxed-the police and lighting rates, with a water-rate in prospect, are the only taxes to which they are subjected." That the population has “nearly doubled in four years:" that public works have been executed from current revmae, and "as rapidly as the Surveyor-General's Department, although largely reinforced, was able to get through them;" that the revenue in chiefly derived from the Chinese, who, in the words of Sir H. Robinson, “cousti- tute 98 per cent. of the population, and probably contributs nearly a similar proportion of the revenue. They have made the Colony the centre of a large-local coasting trade—a depôt at wishch she producs of the north and mouth destined for consumption in China okungen hands;” and that the the connection with trade European part of the population ennista, s
of the China houses and banks wha.elect to live in Hong Kong, as a convenient centre from whence to dimos the operations of their establishments senttered through- out Chins."
is concerned, of “a certain number of the
They
be fac they if military
Colou
insist upon the sireumetanos that the garrison and for ska trada with China, which çanjilbuter
thaż un branch Impadal revenue. They omit
midyce has given rin
sequired by the
erther that "event
a minciał tax will Khotion be insisted
vred against.