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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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sanctioned the adoption of the latter proposition, by approving of the assessment of districts for the main- tenance of the roads; but this scheme cannot be brought into operation before 1849, at which time only it will in all probability be found practicable to levy the land-tax upon coffee estates. The proposed reduction of the cinna- mon duty to 4d. per lb. on the 1st September, 1848, appears to me to be open to three objections: first, it will greatly reduce the cinnamon revenue during 1848, before we begin to levy our new taxes. Second, the retention even of that amount of duty will tend to keep the trade unsettled, and if it is not now abolished it is hard to say when it will be. Third, it will in its effect press most heavily (and this is in my eyes the greatest objection) It is of the utmost upon the third sort of cinnamon. importance, in my opinion, that the grower of cinnamon should be placed upon the most favourable footing in this respect.

The proposition which I have to make is, that no altera- tion of the export duties should take place during 1648, but that an ordinance should be now introduced, enacting that all export duties shall cease on the 31st December, 1848; we shall then, from the 1st January, 1849, enter at once upon our new system, and shall see clearly what we have to look for our annual revenue. I anticipate the following as the effect of my proposition upon the revenue of 1849 and succeeding years: Loss:-Cinnamon duties, 22,000l.; export duties, 10,000%; discriminating foreign import duty, 20007.; total, 34,0001. Gain t-Assessment, 38,000/.*; coffee, 10,000l.; arms, 7,5001.; stamps, 5,000l. (I understand that this may be looked for as the result of the revision of the stamp ordinance): total, 60,5001. This estimate shows a gain of 26,500%, and in it I have not included the additional revenue to be expected from the revision of the import duties, which is in progress. We may therefore reasonably rely upon an accession of annual revenue to the amount of 25,0001

On which it is ordered,

That the import duties do come into operation on the 1st January, 1848. The tariff of export duties to come Into operation, as regarda cinnamon, on the 1st September, 1848, on which 4d. per lb. will be charged; all other articles from the same date free.

It appears, certainly, from the first minute of Mr. Wodehouse, that he recommended immediate notice to be given of the abolition, in ten months, of the export duty ort cinnamon, and that he pro- posed to abolish all the other export duties at the same time; the loss to the revenue to be made up by a tax on cinnamon and coffee lands, this tax

to commence simultaneously with the cessation of the export duties. As to the time of making the change in the export duties, his minute coincides

• i. ., his own road ordinance.

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with the Report, which required that the export duties should be maintained until the arrangements for the substituted tax should be completed.

In his second minute, he urges that the tax on cinnamon lands should be as low as possible, and gives reasons to show that there is no necessity for showing the same favour to coffee.

His third minute manifests a decided change of opinion. "The Committee of the Colonial Office," he says, "expressed their opinion that all export duties should cease as soon as we could impose a land-tax upon cinnamon and coffee lands." It had turned out in the course of the discussions, and since his second minute was laid before the Execu- tive Council, that, after all, "there would be a great difficulty in imposing a land-tax upon cinnamon, at all, except as forming part of the whole of the cul- tivated lands, the ultimate taxation of which, after a survey, was in contemplation." The hypothesis, therefore, upon which Mr. Wodehouse had, in his first minute, recommended the abolition of all the export duties, had proved to be fallacious, and upon

Evidence, 1849. Wodehouse, 4844. this discovery he at once alters his course.

"This discovery led to a development of different views," and Mr. Wodehouse's view, in this, his ultimatum, is distinct, that all the export duties should remain untouched until the 1st January, 1849. when his road ordinance would come in, instead of the pro- posed special land-tax, to sustain the revenue, and then that these duties should be all abolished. On one point, however, his minutes are uniform through- out: cinnamon is always his especial care, and coffee a secondary matter. In this respect his minutes and the minuted proceedings of the Council agree, for there are no fewer than six discussions recorded on the cinnamon duty, while the other export duties are not even mentioned, except on the 28th October, in the very fiat for their abolition. But it seems that at last some of his colleagues had fallen behind him, for he was still for the abolition rather than the re- duction of the cinnamon duty, when the proper time for any change arrived; and his third minute was "one effort more" for the entire immunity of cinnamon.

Thus, as to all the export duties he had a differ- ence with his colleagues on the point of time; as to the cinnamon duty, he had an additional difference of principle.