182 On the Condition of the Inhabitant s 



very well afford to bear. Their parochial assessments arc 

 equally moderate. At the first establishment of the colony, 

 a kind of capitation tax was levied under the name of lion 

 and trjger monei/. The fund so raised was applied to the 

 encouragement of destrovlng beasts of prey, of which these 

 two were considered as the most formidable. But as lions 

 and tygers have long been as scarce in the neighbourhood of 

 the cape, as wolves are in England, the name of the assess- 

 ment has been changed, though the assessment itself re- 

 mains, and is applied to the repairs of the roads, streets, 

 water-courses, and other public works. The sum to be 

 raised is fixed by the police, and the quota assigned to each 

 is proportioned to the circumstances of the individual 5 the 

 limits of the assessment being from half-a-crown to forty 

 shillings. The persons liable must be burghers, or such as 

 are above sixteen years of age, and enrolled among the 

 burgher inhabitants. The ordinary amount is fixed at about 

 five thousand rix dollars a vear. 



Another assessment, to which heads of families are liable, 

 is called chimney and hearth vioney. This is, properly 

 speaking, a house tax, fixed at the rate of eighteen pence a 

 month, or 4{- rix dollars a year, for everv house or fire-place. 

 This should seem to be an unfair assessment, as the richest 

 and the poorest inhabitant, the man with a large house and 

 he who possesses only a cottage, are liable to the same con- 

 tribution; as it is presumed that every house has its kitchen 

 fire-place and no other. The amount of this assessment is 

 about five thousand twohundrcd rix dollars, which, at theabove 

 rate, corresponds very nearly with the nuniijcr of houses in 

 the town. 



They are subject to no tythes nor church-rates whatso- 

 ever towards the maintenance of the clergy; these being 

 paid in the most liberal manner out of the treasury of go- 

 vernment. Nor is any demand made upon them for the 

 support of the poor. The very few that, through age or 

 infirmities, are unable to maintain themselves, are support- 

 ed out of the superfluities of the church. Where the 

 mere articles of eating and drinking are so reasonably pro- 

 cured as in the Cape, it is no great degree, of charily for 

 the rich to support their poor relations, and, accordingly, it 

 is the common practice of the countrv. Those who come 

 luider the denomination of poor are, for the most part, 

 emancipated slaves, who may not have the benefit of such 

 relations. Nor docs the cliurch provide for such on uncer- 

 tain ground?. Every person manumitting a slave must pay 

 to the church fifty rix-doUarSj or ten pounds, and at the same 



time 



