127
1 2 3
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
C.O. 882
SIR,
(No. 353.)
No. 106.
GOVERNOR SIR C. BRUCE to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
(Received October 15, 1903.)
[Answered by No. 112.]
Government House, Mauritius, September 12, 1903. WITH reference to my despatch, No. 352, of the 11th instant, transmitting, for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure, Ordinance No. 19 of 1903, entitled an Ordinance "To authorize the raising of a loan of £40,000 to meet the cost of the Black River Railway Extension," I have the honour to transmit to you copies of a Minute I submitted to the Council of Government, on the 8th instant, together with a statement prepared by the Acting Receiver-General and the Head Accountant of the Treasury, explanatory of the charges on account of the public debt of the Colony. I trust that you may find my Minute useful in considering the question of further loans that may be proposed under the General Loan and Inscribed Stock Ordinance,
1387.
2. You will observe that although the head of expenditure, Charges on Account of the Public Debt, figures in the estimates for 1903-04 for no less a sum than Rs. 1,373,872, exclusive of the re-afforestation loan, the charges actually borne by the taxpayers of the Colony, inclusive of the re-afforestation loan, constitute an annual burden which cannot fairly be considered to amount to more than about Rs. 200,000, while against this moderate burden must be set off the profits of the Loan Office.
3. The charges on account of the public debt include, in fact, an industrial enter- prise the railways-and a financial enterprise-the Loan Office and it is, I think, shown in my Minute that while the railways are a profitable investment, the trans- actions of the Loan Office, independently of the service they have rendered the Colony in carrying the industry on which the welfare of all classes of the community depends through more than one season of imminent peril, have been, and promise to be, a source of profit to the Treasury.
4. Exclusive of these enterprises the burden imposed on the Colony on account of the public debt may be stated as follows:-
Mare-aux-Vacoas
Sundry purposes Re-afforestation
Rs. 80,681 51,110 75,000
(No. 15 of 1903.)
Enclosure in No. 106.
MINUTE.
Charges on account of the Public Debt of the Colony.
In view of recent proposals to raise additional loans under the General Loan and Inscribed Stock Ordinance, 1887, the Governor thinks it will be convenient to lay before the Council of Government the exact position of the Colony in so far as regards the burden imposed on the general taxpayer by existing loans. The system of includ- ing in the annual estimates the charges on account of the public debt is often mis- understood, and has led to a widely prevailing impression that the whole of the funds necessary to meet these charges are drawn from the revenue of the Colony derived from taxation. The Governor has therefore had prepared a statement showing the real amount of the burden imposed on the taxpayer, which, for convenient expres- sion, is referred to as the dead-weight. divided into four groups, as follows:-
In this statement the existing loans are
Railway, Mare-aux-Vacoas,
Sundry purposes, Loan Office.
Railways.
The annual charge on account of interest and redemption of the railway loan amounts to Rs. 495,346; while maintenance and working expenses, taken on an average of five years, represent an annual charge of Rs. 1,460,577. The total annual expenditure amounts, therefore, to Rs. 1,955,923, against an average revenue of Rs. 1,905,579, leaving an apparent dead-weight of Rs. 50,344. An average of five years has been taken because the expenditure of the last two years has been increased by an altogether abnormal special expenditure on account of plant and rolling stock. The apparent dead-weight of Rs. 50,344 is, in fact, more than counterbalanced by the free transport of Government passengers and freight, not included in the statement of railway receipts. During the year 1902 such transport represented a sum of Rs. 106,000. The railway loans have been effected under different Ordinances, and will be paid off at the following dates:-
Under Ordinance 10 of 1876
33
10 of 1879
""
1 of 1887
4 of 1892
"2
in 1923 in 1926
in 1937
in 1940
37904
8
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
Rs. 206,791
5. I will ask you to be good enough to consider this despatch in connection with my despatches of even date, Nos. 354 and 355,† transmitting the resolutions of the Council of Government in favour of the issue of a loan of £24,000 for drainage and sewerage works in Port Louis, and of £16,000 for the Mare-aux-Vacoas Waterworks. The annual charge on account of these loans, if approved, will amount to, approxi- nately, Rs. 30,000.
6. I have thought the more necessary to submit to you my Minute on the public debt of the Colony, inasmuch as two further schemes for the construction of light railway lines in the districts of l'amplemousses, Rivière du Rempart and Flacq are now under consideration. I hope to be able to submit these schemes for your approval in a few weeks, having every reason to believe that they will be self-support- ing as well as of undoubted benefit to the planters of the northern districts of the ('olony.
I have, &c.,
CHAS. BRUCE,
Governor.
• No. 105.
Nos. 107 and 108.
and the annual charge for interest and sinking fund will be reduced as follows:-
In 1923
In 1926
In 1937
In 1940
by Rs. 55,028
12
72,525
27
335,393
11
32,400
Rs. 495,346
Taking into account the free transport of Government passengers and freight the railways now working-if the ratio of revenue and expenditure is maintained--may reasonably be expected to yield a profit of over Rs. 50,000 from the year 1923, increas- ing to Rs. 500,000 from the year 1940.
Mare-aux-Vacoas.
The Mare-aux-Vacoas Waterworks represent an annual charge of Rs. 63,490 for interest and redemption of loan and Rs. 53,748 for maintenance and working expenses, a total charge of Rs. 117,238, against an annual revenue of Rs. 36,557, leaving a dead- weight of Rs. 80,681.
Loans for Sundry Purposes.
The loans raised for sundry purposes as indicated in the statement are not repro- ductive, and they impose on the Colony an annual dead-weight charge of Rs. 51,110.