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TURKS ISLANDS.

No. 10.

COPY of DESPATCH from the Governor DARLING to the Right Hon.
Sir E. B. LYTTON, Bart.

(No. 30.)

SIR,

King's House, Jamaica, July 9, 1858.
(Received August 2, 1858.)

In transmitting the accompanying Despatch from the President of the Turks and Caicos Islands, forwarding the Blue Book for the year 1857, I beg leave to enclose a copy of the letter which I have addressed to Mr. Inglis in reply; and, in fulfilment of

TURKS ISLANDS.

No. 10.

Enclosure 1.

the intimation therein made, I beg to invite your attention to the suggestion made by Enclosure 2.

Mr. Inglis, that the Church Missionary Aid Society might be induced to extend their operations to the Turks Islands.

2. I think that the President is under a mistaken impression with respect to the difficulty of furnishing a comprehensive statement of the revenue and expenditure of the Presidency, which I have in my reply to his despatch endeavoured to remove.

The Right Hon. Sir E. B. Lytton, Bart.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

C. H. DARLING.

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SIR,

(Separate, No. 40.)

Government House, Grand Turk, June 17, 1858.

I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith the Blue Book of this colony for 1857. 2. Referring to your Excellency's Despatch No. 19. of the 12th September 1857, paragraphs 4 and 5, I regret that the Colonial Secretary has been unable to meet the views therein expressed, further than by endeavouring to give a clearer exposition of the revenue of the colony, whether derived from customs' duties on imports and exports, raised by ordinances of the Legislative Council, and, which may be more properly considered the colonial revenue, deposited in the colonial treasury, and under the control of the legislature, or from the salt pond rents and sale of Crown lands, which form Her Majesty's Crown Funds of the colony, and are under the sole control of Her Majesty's Government. To place these funds under incidental revenue, as your excellency suggested, appears to be impracatible, as long as they remain unfused with the colonial revenue, and are collected and disbursed by another officer than the receiver-general.

3. The Crown Funds were, I believe, not originally intended to be used or considered as revenue, in the strict acceptation of the word, although the principle of their expenditure within the colony has been recognised as a just one. Their legitimate use was destined for the improvement of the salt ponds, and reclaiming uncultivated salinas, by which means the revenue and the colony generally would be benefited; for necessary public works, as well as for buildings of such descriptions as are called for, more particularly in a new colony, many of which undertakings, in consequence of these funds being diverted into other channels, have been delayed, and are still likely to be so, for an indefinite period. One of these necessary public works, viz., the defence from the encroachment of the sea on the west side of Grand Turk, which threatens destruction both to salinas and the town itself, and towards which incommensurate measures only can be taken from want of adequate means, would, if duly carried out, absorb of itself the Crown Funds for a series of years.

4. Should the estimates for 1859 receive the sanction of Her Majesty's Government, the sum of 500l., which I have proposed to be paid for a term of years from the Crown Funds, in aid of the colonial revenue, (which will in fact be placing a certain portion of the Crown Fund at the disposition of the Legislative Council,) will appear in the Blue Book for that year under the head of incidental revenue. In the meanwhile, and in the absence of any other suggestion, the Crown Funds appear under the head of "local revenues at page 34 of the present Blue Book.

Encl.1 in No.10.

TURKS

5. In order, however, to show more clearly the entire resources and expenditure of the ISLANDS. colony, the Colonial Secretary has inserted an additional sheet at page 27 among the Blue Book returns, which, if considered unnecessary, can easily be withdrawn, without detriment to the rest, and does not interfere with the numerical succession of the other pages.

6. Thereon will be found an abstract of the total revenue, from whatever source derived, showing more clearly the existing financial resources of the colony, and correcting the erroneous impression which might arise from an inspection of the "Abstract of the net revenue and expenditure" wherein the words "total revenue" and "total expenditure" show only those arising and defrayed from customs' duties.

7. This additional statement shows the total revenual receipts of the colony in 1857 to have amounted to 11,100l. 17s. 11d., viz:

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£ s. d. 788 13 103

- 5,938 19 2
13 11 10

5,952 11 0

6,741 4 103

186 11

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832 5 2

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It also shows the total expenditure to have amounted to 10,260l. 8s. 103d., viz.:

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8. An idea has been obtained here, originated and fostered by designing persons desirous of establishing a grievance, and who are not wanting even among those from whom we have a right to expect better things, that in calculating the amount of individual taxation in this colony the Crown Funds should be considered a portion of that taxation, although it is well known that the proprietors of the salt ponds, the tenants of the Crown, receive generally not only far more than an equivalent for their rent, but, actually reversing the order of landlord and tenant, have a large proportion of it restored to them, in the shape of works connected with the salt ponds, the cost of which is defrayed from the Crown Funds, such as the repair of roads and bridges, cleansing of reservoirs and watercourses, erection of bridges, sluice-gates, and wind-machines, together with numerous other works for the general benefit of the lessees of the Crown, while in the expenditure unconnected with the ponds the salt pond proprietors participate in the benefit of such with the rest of the community.

9. Unthinking persons, however, are led to believe, that the revenue of the colony is raised by taxation alone, and that therefore the total revenue, from whatever source derived, divided by the population, leaves as a quotient the average amount of what is contributed by each individual in the colony towards the maintenance of the government. 10. These ideas were formally enunciated in a memorial addressed to your Excellency, transmitted in my Despatch (Separate), No. 22. of 10th October 1857, signed by 85 persons, representing the intelligence of the communities of Grand Turk and Salt Cay, against Ordinance No. 6. of 1857, providing a retiring allowance (after 39 years' service) for Mr. Hamilton, provost marshal, police magistrate, post officer, and superintendent of the lighthouse, in this colony.

11. Among other reasons assigned in the above memorial against this ordinance (which subsequently received Her Majesty's disallowance), it was stated "that the whole "expenditure of the colony is sustained by local taxation, which has already reached "to about 31. on every inhabitant;" whereas I shall show, subsequently, that it does not exceed 1. 1s. 5d. per head.

12. There is no West India colony sufficiently small in point of population wherewith to institute a comparison with the Turks and Caicos Islands, the last census of which in 1851 places the population at 3,250 souls, or somewhat less than three fifths of the popu lation of Montserrat in the same year.

13. In the report of President Baynes, accompanying the Montserrat Blue Book for 1850, I find the ordinary individual taxation of that colony placed at 6s. 94d. On examining, however, the per-centage on the relative amounts of duties on goods imported into these two colonies, it will be found to be nearly the same, viz. from 11 to 13 per cent. on their declared value, the only highly taxed import here being the article of ardent spirits, which if left out of the calculation would give the lesser per-centage; thus showing that the necessaries and luxuries of life must be, as far as customs' duties are concerned (our sole mode of taxation in this colony), about as cheap in Turks Islands, where individual taxation is apparently more than three times as high, as they are in Montserrat, where taxation is apparently so low.

14. Wages of common labourers in this colony, compared with what appears to be the rate in Montserrat, are never less than four times and are frequently six and even nine times higher than in Montserrat, thus causing a large consumption of the luxuries as well as the necessaries of life, and proving, that while taxation falls with no greater weight on the labourer of Turks Islands than on those at Montserrat, although the former resides in what may comparatively be considered a highly taxed colony, the superior condition of the labourer here is apparent from the comparative value of imports consumed, the average value of imports from 1853 to 1855, both years inclusive, at Montserrat, being 9,0607. per annum, while at Turks Islands, with a population of two fifths less, the average value of imports, commencing from the separation from the Bahama government in 1849 to 1857, amounts to 31,202. 1s. 11d. per annum, deducting from which the amount of imports re-exported, leaves an average value of imports actually consumed within this colony of 27,016l. 3s. per annum.

15. In praying for a separation from the Bahama government, the inhabitants of Turks Islands must have been aware that the revenue required for the maintenance of a separate government (more especially on the expensive scale on which this has been framed) could bear no due proportion to the limited population; and when the petitioners in the before mentioned memorial, which was signed by some of the chief promoters of that separation, made the statement that taxation had already reached to about 31. per head, thereby plainly implying that taxation had been increased since the separation, they ignore in an unscrupulous manner, the well known fact of the tariff having been reduced in 1849 nearly 50 per cent. under that which preceded it. In corroboration of this statement, it is only necessary to mention, that the declared value of imports in 1849 amounted to 24,8547., of which goods to the value of 5,1491. were re-exported, leaving the amount of imports entered for consumption in that year of the value of 19,7051., the import duties on which amounted to 4,752., or about 24 per cent. on their declared value, while in 1850, under the new tariff, the declared value of imports amounted to 27,9891., of which goods to the value of 4,1741. were re-exported, leaving the amount of imports entered for consumption of the value of 23,815l., the import duties on which amounted to 2,946l., or about 112 per cent. on their declared value.

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16. I would here incidentally, in illustration of the tariff question as regards this colony, beg to quote a paragraph from my speech at the opening of the Legislative Council in 1857, in which I have shown that the increased imports following the reduction of the tariff have been owing, not to the reduction but to the increased prosperity of the colony consequent on the separation. "The large and progressive increase in the value of imports since 1849 is a remarkable feature in the tabular statement, which is attributable to the increased prosperity of the colony consequent on the separation. This is obvious "from the fact of the increased value of imports having been principally in dry goods, "the ad valorem duties on which were increased by the tariff of 1819 from 5 to 7 per "cent. The receiver-general's published statements show that these ad valorem "duties collected under the old tariff amounted in 1849 to 4071. 19s. 5d., in 1855 to "1,0667. 14s. 10d., and, taking the seven years from 1850 to 1856 inclusive, there is an average of 7731. per annum arising from duties on dry goods. These statements also "show an increase in the amount of duties on brandy, rum, and gin, which were, as well as the ad valorem duties, increased by the tariff of 1849, these duties amounting in "1849 to 1,003l. 17s. 5d., while the subsequent seven years give an average of "1,113/. 17s. 1d. per annum."

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17. Were it possible that the method adopted by the before-mentioned memorialists, of calculating the average individual taxation of this colony, could be admitted to be correct, it would be found to have amounted in 1856, the year previous to that in which the memorial was prepared, on the financial return of which it is to be presumed the calcula

TURKS

ISLANDS.

TURKS ISLANDS.

tion was based, to 2l. 17s. 14d. per head, the revenue derived from customs duties in that year amounting to

Revenue derived from the Crown Funds in 1856

Total

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£5,806 7 6

3,482 6 7

9,288 14 1

which amount, taking the population at 3,250 souls according to the census of 1851, would give the above result.

year

18. On the same principle of calculation it would be found that in 849, the first of the separation, while the colony was still under the old Bahama tariff, the average individual taxation amounted to 31. 4s. 6d. per head, the revenue derived from customs' duties in that year amounting to £7,202 10 2 3,224 15 9

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Revenue derived from the Crown Funds in 1849

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which amount, taking the population at 3,250 souls, will give the above result; thus showing, even by the fallacious mode of calculation adopted by these memorialists, a diminution of taxation in 1856 under that of 1849, of 17s. 44d. per head.

19. In order to arrive at any result on this subject approximating to the truth, I would mention that the average annual sum collected as duties on imports into these islands from 1850 (commencing with the new tariff) to 1857, 8 years, both years inclusive, amounts to 3,7521. 14s. 53d. per annum, which, still retaining the population of the colony at 3,250 souls, would give an average individual taxation of 11. 3s. 1d. per head, or, placing the population, as is more probably the case, at 3,500 souls, would give as a result 17. 1s. 5d. as the average individual taxation in this colony, already mentioned at paragraph eleven of this report. With regard to the export duty of one farthing per bushel on salt, the manufacture of which is a monopoly, it cannot, I apprehend, be looked on as general taxation, more particularly as it is admitted, even by some of the salt rakers, that the export duty is paid by the purchaser.

Colonial Revenue and Expenditure. Imports and Exports.

20. The revenue from imports and exports and "other sources," such as light dues, fees of office, liquor licences, postages, contributions to widows' and orphans' fund, &c., for 1857, amounted to 5,952l. 10s., which, though greater than that of 1856 by 1461. 2s. 6d., fell short of the estimated revenue by 360l. 9s. The expenditure of 1857, arising out of provision made for the civil list by the annual appropriation and other ordinances of the legislature, amounted to 6,0301. 5s. 1d., which, although exceeding the revenue by 771. 15s. 1d., was under the estimated expenditure by 3147. 3s. 8d., and was less than the actual expenditure of 1856 by the amount of 94l. 10s. 5d.

21. The total declared value of imports in 1857 amounted to 33,4187. 2s. 10d., against 33,5231. 7s. 6d. in 1856. The total value of exports amounted in 1857 to 29,274l. 9s. against 27,064l. 3s. 1d. in 1856.

22. In my report which accompanied the Blue Book for 1856 I adverted to the low condition to which (comparatively with that which preceded it) the existing tariff had been reduced, which as the principal means of revenue appeared to be unequal to the increasing exigencies of the colony. As the term of the present tariff, however, will expire in from three to four years from the present time, it might be inexpedient to attempt any revision of the same with a view to an increase on import duties until its expiration, during which period there is reason to believe that the resources of the colony will be on the increase, by the proposed settlement of the West Caicos, and the gradual development of Cockburn Harbour, East Caicos; while at the same time some of the prospective reductions of official salaries may have taken place contemplated by Ordinance No. 3. of 1856, which when in full operation will effect a saving to the colony of 5961. 2s. 1d. per annum. Meanwhile, as I have already adverted to in the fourth paragraph of this report, I have in my Despatch (Financial), No. 28. of 24th April 1858, transmitting the estimates for 1859, recommended, with the advice of the Executive Council, that an amount (5001.) in aid of the colonial revenue be contributed annually for a term of from three to five years from Her Majesty's Crown Funds of the colony. It is true that the Crown Funds contribute indirectly in various ways towards the maintenance of this government, as I have already had occasion to mention, and that in thus diverting them still further from their more legitimate application those public works of utility and necessity before referred to are thereby impeded, but when it is considered that, notwithstanding the great reduction of the old Bahama tariff, the inhabitants of this colony are, in consequence of their limited number, even now, compared with other small

West India colonies, somewhat heavily taxed, and considering, further, the great opposition which such a measure as that of raising the tariff would be likely to call forth from the representative members of council, your excellency will probably coincide with me in the opinion, that it is desirable to avoid as long as possible, under the circumstances, the difficult task of retracing steps too hastily taken in the first instance, more particularly when there are well-grounded hopes that by deferring the attempt the necessity for it may possibly be obviated altogether.

TABLE showing the REVENUE raised and EXPENDITURE defrayed 'by Authority of the Legislative Council of the TURKS and CAICOS ISLANDS, from 1849 to 1857, both years inclusive, together with the Amounts paid on account of the public debt due to the Bahama Government.

TURKS

ISLANDS.

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23. By the foregoing table it will be seen, first,, that the revenue of 1857, though exceeding that of 1856, was under an average one; second, that the expenditure arising from the civil list provided for by ordinances of the Legislative Council has much increased since the first establishment of this government in 1849; and, third, that, athough there was still a balance of 710l. 18s. 8d. at the close of 1857, the expenditure has exceeded the receipts during the last three years.

TABLE showing the DECLARED VALUE of IMPORTS and the VALUE of EXPORTS from 1849 to 1857.

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24. The above table shows the total declared value of imports during the nine years that this government has been in existence to have amounted to 280,818. 17s. 9d. of which Great Britain furnished

£33,973 15 1

British colonies

United States

Other countries

59,343 10 10

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deducting from which the imports re-exported leaves 243,145l. 75., as the declared value of imports consumed during the above period within the colony.

25. The deficiency of imports in 1857, as compared with the previous year, has been considerable, although, in looking at the declared value, this is not so apparent as it has

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