CO537-2188 — Page 408

Saving.

From the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

To th ffice Administering the Government of..

Dat............

N............

Saving.

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I think it will also be desirable for me to comment on references to taxes and taxation in paragraph 34, unless you would prefer to amend the despatch in this respect before it is published. There is of course no objection to the Municipality acting as agents of the Central Government for the collection of specified taxes or of the proceeds of specified taxes being assigned to the Municipality to meet expenditure, if that is the intention. There is also no objection to the Municipality being empowered to fix the fees payable in respect of licences, etc., issued by it. Apart from activities on these lines however, it is clearly open to object- ion for the Legislature to delegate to the

taxes.

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Municipality any authority to levy, or fix rate of, If you prefer to amend your despatch before it is published so as to avoid any misunderstanding on this point, in which case I would make no comment in my reply, I should be glad if you would let me know what amendments you propose.

XIII My reply to enquiry in paragraph 36 will be that, in my view, audit of accounts should be carried out by Colonial Audit Department and not repeat not by commercial audit. (I have reconsidered my original view to the contrary conveyed in paragraph 3 of my telegram No.329.)

XIV.

On proposals in paragraphs 37 and 38 my reply will express the wish to be consulted further when details are available of property to be trans- ferred or leased. I propose to add that in fixing

terms