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The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, APRIL 19TH, 1888.
The Council resumed Committee on the Raling Ordinance.
The COLONIAL TREASURER-Most of the amendments I have to propose, sir, have been subject to formal notice. There are, however, one or two of which I have not been able to give notice, and one in which I have endeavoured to remedy the want of notics by having it printed and circulated. The first amendment isin Section 1, sub-section 2, where I propose to omit the last seutenos and substitute for it the words "Such annual value shall not include the valne of any machinery in or upon such tonoment.”
The COLONIAL SECRETARY Seconded. His EXCELLENCY-I think it is my duty to account for the change of position which has taken place on this subject. Hon. Mr. Chater, according to promise, urged upon me a number of circumstances which pointed to the ex- emption of machinery from this tax. I went carefully into the circumstances he urged, and on one point be certainly did move me considerably, namely, with respect to the eu- ormous amount which apparently would suddou- ly fall on a good many industries, in fact, be pointed out one company alone that would have to pay something like $20,000. I called the hou Treasurer into council, with regard to this mat- ter, and I have found that the results cun- templated by this Ordinance pointed in the op- posite direction, namely, the extreme insigni- lennce of the sum that would be realised. on. Mr. Chater appeared to be under a misappre hension as regards what was intended to be done, and the result of enquiry seemed to point out the worthlessness of the clause from another point of view, that is, that it would produce no- thing, or almost nothing. However, after all. if the thing was right, it was right inde- pendently of what the result might be. But an- other point occurred to me in the course of the canversation on the subject. It appeared that what caused the great difference between Hoa. Mr. Chator and the bou. Treasurer was to a cer- tain extent the fact-not altogether, but to a ver
tain extent-that what Mr. Chator thought was going to be rated, was not going to be rated on account of its being movable. Now although in law a hard and fast line has been drawn, or said to be drawo, I believe there have been doubts on some points, between what is movable and what is immovable, still, when you come to machinery it seems rather arbitrary to draw the line for å purpose of this kind. After all there is scarcely uny machinery that is in use that could not be made more or less available by being moved. For the purposes of an Ordinance of this kind it seerood to me to be somewhat arbitrary, considering that the greater part of the machinery that factories and others were using to make pro- 6ls from was movable, that immovable should be taxed and movable not taxed. These arguments were brought to my mind rather by what was said in the conversation than by what was really urged, and it seemed to me on the whole best to drop the provision which to a cer- taiu extent, a vory, very slight extent, but still to a certain extent, would operats against the foundation of new industries. For that reason I thought it best to drop this provision of the Ordinance. I may say that the Hon. Mr. Ryrie's suggestion, which he made rather curtly, about the taxing of furniture, was the real point which suggested to me the dropping of the provision.
The clause was passed as amended.
In Section 29," the COLONIAL TREASURER proposed the insertion of the words "Two per cent. of the rates levied in the City of] Victoria may, in the discretion of the Governor, be disposed in meeting the expenses of the water supply.
His EXCELLENCY said this addition was proposed because, while there was. a certain convenience in humping all the rates together, still it was as well to keep in raind what we were paying for water.
Clause passed as amended.
Several verbal amendments in different sec- tions having been agreed to,
The COLONIAL, TREASURER proposed to strike out the suspensory clause so that the Bill might come into force as soon as it had received the sanction of the Governor.
The motion was carried.
The COLONIAL TREASURER gave notice that at the next meeting of Council he would move į the third reading of the Bill.
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