MAURITIUS.
Appendix No. 3 to Memorandum on Colonial Policy.
ritius Taxation. Reductions recently made in the Mau-
CONFIDENTIAL.
Appendix No. 4 to Memorandum on Colonial Policy.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTC.O.
885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Memorandum of the recent Finan-
cial Legislation in Ceylon, and of the Government Measures and political events connected therewith.
A system of revenue in which monopolies and export duties formed so large a feature, as might be observed in that in which Ceylon had been carried down from the Dutch time to the present with but little change, could not in these days of economical speculation escape the criticism of the Government, both on the spot, and at home, and of the educated and intelligent com- munity of Europeans, which commercial enter- prize had latterly caused to grow up there, and which could not fail of obtaining abundance of sympathy and support from the public here. It had moreover happened of late years that con- siderable changes had taken place in the pro- ductiveness of different branches of the Ceylon
revenue.
Some, like the pearl fishery, had from great sums fallen away to nothing. Others, like the export duties on coffee, had risen from nothing to large sums. Again, the great decline in the price of cinnamon, so long the staple of the colony and chief support of its revenue, had
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B