:
M.c. 4738
505
being fees for use of Government buoys, yet on the other side there is no corresponding entry in respect of the sum spent this year in purchasing the buoys, a sun greater, I may state, than the gross receipts of three years from light dues, based upon the 1917 estimate, and yet, although these charges, which are part of the total expenditure in connection with the harbour, are omitted, the balance sheet still shows a debit balance in a not inconsider- -able sum. I think that the light dues may be multiplied by three or by four, and the shipping will still have the balance in its
favour.
7.
Mr. Chamberlain, in his Despatch No. 64 of
the 17th. March, 1897, wrote:- "I desire to add that, if at any "time hereafter urgent necessity should arise for increasing the "general revenue, I should be prepared to consider my proposal "for again raising the shipping dues, as I have no reason to think "that the present charge has borne very hardly on the shipping *interests". I submit that the urgent necessity has arisen, in that the money which it is proposed to raise from shipping will be devoted to the prosecution of the war. And, replying to the Board of Trade, I further maintain that the money is required and will be spent in aid of navigation, as, but for the British Fleet, the Shipping Companies, British, Allied, and perhaps Neutral, would have present bankruptcy to show in place of profits beyond record. Simply to expedite their business under conditions made
possible by the Fleet ship-owners pay this Government $100,000 per anmum for permission to work on Sundays. It is not much to ask that they should pay at least an equal sun towards the maintenance of His Majesty's Navy.
8.
I would urge then your consent to a temporary
increase in light dues for the specific service of a further loan if it is decided to raise one to provide a gift to the Imperial Government; or in the event of such loan not being raised then to provide an annual contribution over a period of years; and I should¦
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