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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :--

885

1PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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some intermediate rate higher than the former,

though lower than the latter.

The Committee had some doubt about the new Papers April 1848, p. 18. tax on horses and carriages proposed by Sir E.

Tennent, and would not admit it into their plan,

though not decisively declaring against it.

Sir E. Tennent's tax on fire-arms they did Papers. April 1848, p, 18.

assign place in their plan; but they recom-

a

mended that an inquiry might be made as to its

effect upon the natives before it was actually

imposed.

The Committee did not think themselves justi- Papers. April 1848, p. 13.

fied in recommending that the colony should be

relieved at the expense of England of the con- tribution of 24,0001. a year towards the pay of troops.

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Thus the Committee adopted almost all the

propositions of Sir E. Tennent for reducing exist-

ing taxes, and yet disallowed many of his pro-

positions for putting on new ones. They proposed Papers. April 1848, p. 18, &c.

to make the account even by laying more stress

than did Sir E. Tennent himself on the land-tax, requiring it to be assessed upon the principle of a heavy land-tax like that of India, and not on the principle of a light one like that of some other colonies; the former varying according to the value and productiveness-not necessarily the actual produce-of the land,-the latter, as in Sir E. Tennent's plan, being uniform by the acre for all lands alike. The right of the Govern- ment in Ceylon to levy land-tax to the extent of a tithe of produce upon almost every description of cultivation was assumed by the Committee to be incontestible. The past neglect of this right should now be rectified they thought, and a systematic survey and assessment on the Indian plan entered upon at once under Indian officers borrowed for the purpose from the East India Company. The application of such a land-tax to other lands besides rice, cinnamon, and coffee lands, would be a work of time, and the return could not be estimated. Rice lands under the Committee's scheme of land-tax, would yield neither more nor less than before.

The Committee's whole scheme thus amounted (if we neglect the chank and loaded cart-tax- items of no moment) to an immediate reduction of the export duty on cinnamon from 1s. to

Papers. April 1848, p. 26, &c.

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what they considered a fairer rate of 4d.; and

of the import duty on rice and paddy from 7d. and 3d., to 4d. and 2d. the bushel :-total loss involved, 40,0001.: being on cinnamon, 14,0007.;

on rice, 26,0001.

This loss would be reduced, the Committee calculated, 70001., by increased imports of rice at the reduced pate; and 7,500 more by the new tax upon fire-arms, which they seem to have thought on the whole might be at once imposed. The balance

of loss about 25,000l. or 26,000l., the Committee looked to the land-tax to make good in the course of time out of its extension to other lands besides those growing rice, coffee, and cinnamon, in respect to which three products the Committee's scheme of land-tax would have caused neither profit nor loss to the revenue; as in regard to them this new land-tax would only have been a commutation of the same amount of taxation here- tofore carried to the credit of Government under some other head.

The cash balance was relied on to cover this deficit of 25,000l. or 26,000l., pending the maturity of this compensating measure of land taxation.

The Commitee called attention to various other points, though without giving them a

place in their definite plan, with respect to which, the adoption of prudent measures might also produce beneficial results upon the finances. Amongst these were a revision of the Stamp Duties,—the formation of Road Committees, with powers of local assessment, which might make them them the nucleus of future municipalities, the en- couragement of Government to the repair and Papers. April 1848, pp. 17 and 18. construction of tanks, and the establishment of a system of licences, instead of the existing mode of salt-manufacture by special and exclusive con- tract between individuals and the Government.

The measures which Lord Torrington adopted, differed both from those suggested by Sir E. Tennent and the Committee, though most re- sembling those of the latter.

New Papers now laid before Par-

His Lordship speedily discovered on his arrival liament. February 1849, pp. in Ceylon, with the Committee's plan in his hands,

to 8.

that the current surplus and the accumulated balance relied upon by the Committee were both E