104
It is too often forgotten that the use of a fixed percentage of revenue to determine the amount of the contribution is in itself merely a mode of calculation, not based upon considerations of equity in its application to this or that class of revenue, but designed to produce roughly a fair contribution in view of the cost of the garrison and the general financial capacity of the Colony, and to enable the sum payable annually to be readily arrived at. It follows that no change of principle can properly be made in the items which compose the revenue on which the percentage is calculated, without raising the question of an increase (or decrease, as the case may be) of the percentage itself.
For example, the decision taken in 1897 that railway receipts in Ceylon and Mauritius should be treated net instead of gross (see Treasury letter 7264 of 5th May, 1897) was accompanied by an appropriate increase in the percentages for those Colonies. For these reasons, the method followed in the Governor's despatch of 23rd November, of charging a share of the Military Contribution against the particular class of revenue concerned (Postal Receipts), is open to objection.
The Council have already had occasion in War Office letter 10/700(F.1) of 19th March, 1907, on the subject of the District Collections in the Straits Settlements, to deprecate strongly the tendency to depart further and further from the broad rules on which the contributions are based, by introducing fresh distinctions
104
It is too often forgotten
Office was entirely just. that the use of a fixed percentage of revenue to determine the amount of the contribution is in itself merely a mode of calculation, not based upon con- siderations of equity in its application to this or that class of revenue, but designed to produce roughly a fair contribution in view of the cost of the garrison and the general financial capacity of the Colony, and to enable the sum payable annually to be readily arrived at. It follows that no change of principle can properly be made in the items which compose the revenue on which the percentage is calculated, without raising the question of an increase (or decrease, as the case may be) of the percentage itself. For example, the decision taken in 1897 that railway receipts in Ceylon and Mauritius should be treated net instead of gross (see Treasury letter 7264 of 5th May, 1897) was accompanied by an appropriate increase in the percentages for those Colonies. For these reasons, the method followed in the Governor's despatch of 23rd November, of charging a share of the Military Contribution against the particular class of revenue concerned (Postal Receipts), is open to objection.
The Council have already had occasion in War Office letter 10/700 (F.1) of 19th March, 1907, on the
subject of the District Collections in the Straits
Settlements, to deprecate strongly the tendency to
depart further and further from the broad rules on which
the contributions are based, by introducing fresh
distinctions
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