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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

* Papers. April 1848, p. 103.

Papers. April 1848, p. 108.

was not to be adopted till the compensating wes- sures had become productive, which were to çöâ- sist in this case, in the gain by the equalisation of the import duties, in the levy of import duty on some articles hitherto exempted, and in an addi- tional and special import duty on some one or two articles such as arms and sobaeno: estiísated produce on the whole 11,0401.

The next step was to be the reduction of the import duty on rice and paddy from 7d. and 3d., the existing rates, to 4d. and 2d. per bushel: lose to revenue 27,7681.:* but only so soon as there might be in process of realisation a new tax on arms (ls. 6d. on each piece), on carriages and horses (10s. on each horse, and the name on each pair of wheels): estimated revenue *----*

the fixed rating of about 34., which all cultivated lands were to bear alike, according to Sir E. Tennent's plan of a new land tax, Sir E. Ten- nent thought the new fixed rate per acre should be an equivalent to the old tithe, and as about 38. would be such an equivalent, that sum appears to have been fixed by him (in his plan for a new land tax), for uniform application to all the cul- tivated lands in the colony.

The evils of assessing actual produce were con- sidered by Sir E. Tennent conclusive reasons for

adopting the fixed rate by the acre instead.

The colony being supplied from India with about Papers. April 1848, p. 64.

half of the whole of the rice consumed within it,

and rice being the principal food of the people, Sir E. Tennent considered that the existing import duty of 50 per cent. on the value of this article was most objectionable as a source of revenue, enhancing as it did the cost of the necessaries of life, and should therefore be abandoned as soon as possible.

The equalization of the import duties to a rate Papers. April 1848, p. 79. of 6 per cent. ad valorem for foreign and British

goods alike, instead of the then existing system of laying 10 per cent. on the former and 5 per cent. on the latter, was also part of Sir E. Ten- nent's plan, and was not only proposed as an act of justice to the local consumers but also as one

of the means of making good the deficiency

which other parts of the plan involved.

Sir E. Tennent intended that his entire plan for Papers. April 1848, pp. 102 and

a better distribution of the burdens of taxation

should be brought into operation by degrees in the order, and that the revenue foregone should be compensated in the manner to be now de scribed.

108.

The cinnamon duties were to be immediately Papers. April 1848, p. 109.

abolished, with two minor taxes of no value

(chank monopoly and Colombo loaded cart-tax):— loss to revenue about 25,0001.

The immediate compensation would have been the discontinuance of the payment to the military chest of 24,0001., which looking at other colonies Sir E. Tennent thought could with no pretence of justice be any longer exacted.

The next step was to be the abolition of the other export duties, consisting chiefly of that on coffee:-- low to revenue about 10,0001. But this measure

Armus Carriages

-

7,500 2,500

10,000

and an increased tax on salt, by charging the wholesale price at 4. instead of 23. 8d., estimated revenue

17,849

- £27,849

Papers. April 1848, p.

56.

C.O. 882

1

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH........NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Total compensation

The manufacture of salt in Ceylon, be it observed is a monopoly in the hands of Geverté ment. The cast to Government is about 44. bushel. The sale-price realised by them 24. 4d, til; within a few years ago, when sised to 2r.. 6d. Sir Eà Tonnent eynoldused as a mode of raislog, a. large, devenus, which quite unobjeétioneder, und sould be very limie felt by any individual, being equivalent to the imposition of a very modérats pull-tiż a society where subsistence was sasily and with little labour obtained by all.

The next step in Sir E. Tunn

was to be the commutation of the produce of rice grounds to a fixed of about 3a.j. áhis would involro. gain. "And the last step would extend this fixed rate

in the dólowy, and further

la. parimore on ́ali

private property. The

of the land tax wamid

* Thân loss in einfed, în

out parts of fl- R. Temont