49
(e)
(8)
(g)
under the present system and those which the
new system would have yielded for past years
suffers from the disturbing factors of the war and
rent restrictions, but it is not clear that a levy
on rateable value would be as good a criterion of
the Colony's capacity to pay, as is a percentage of
gross revenue.
The War Office would not naturally resist
any proposal for the substitution of an entirely
new system for the 1895 settlement, if it were
clear that a new system would avoid any important
di s-advantages without sacrificing the advantages
of the present system, and that Army Funds would
not suffer in consequence of the change. There is
reason to apprehend that in future years the yield
from the new system proposed might be smaller than
that under the present system.
The issues
raised by the Colony's
reserved claims under the existing system are so
direct a challenge to the principles of the 1895
settlement, that the War Office cannot agree that
they constitute a genuine alternative. If the
new system is rejected, they comprise claims which
would be far reaching in their financial effects, and
raise questions of the treatment of municipal
revenues which were fully considered and decided
moreover against the Colony in 1895. They ignore, however, the principle on which the War Office has always taken its stand, that modifications of the scope
of the revenue assessable under the 1895 settlement
can only be made if they are accompanied by a revision of the percentage limit on the gross revenue.
If, however, any individual claims for
assessment
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