FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT. 



233 



the real amount of taxation contributed by the inhabitants, and 

 of expenditure, it is necessary to add to the above amount of 

 80,657 the local and special receipts, and also the expenditure. 

 Unfortunately, I have but few data on the subject. 



LOCAL RECEIPTS (WARDS). 

 



1852 .... 21,309 



1853 .... 23,606 

 1855 21,328 



Average 



Port of Spain, average 

 of five years 



22,082 



LOCAL EXPENDITDBE (WARDS). 



1852 

 1853 

 1855 



20,455 

 19,222 

 19,202 



19,626 



Port of Spain, average 

 7,202 of five years . . 6,934 



Contributions to the Im- 

 migration Funds (1855) 30,846 



Thus, the amount of taxation contributed in the year 1855, by 

 the inhabitants of this colony, may be calculated as follows : 







General Receipts 72,323 



Local (Wards) 22,082 



(Port of Spain) 7,202 



Special (Immigration) 30,846 



Total 132,453 



Estimated population, 70, 000 inhabitants less about 3,000 for 

 the town of San Fernando, 67,000 ; or about 37 shillings, or 

 8*88 dollars, per individual ; and the value of our exports being 

 about 450,000, nearly 34 per cent, of our exports may be said 

 to represent our productive industry. 



Such is our position, as far as taxation is concerned ; nor should 

 we have reason to complain, were the money contributed by the 

 tax-payers judiciously and prudently expended. 



The colony has contracted a heavy debt for immigration, as 

 well as local purposes. What part of that debt has been liquidated, 

 and what still remains due ? It is difficult to determine either 

 point, the government maintaining, on this subject, a suspicious 

 reserve. This much we know, however : the share of Port of 

 Spain is about 27,000, for the reimbursement of which the 

 householders pay one and a half per cent, on the annual rent of 

 houses, amounting, in 1855, to 1,441 ; about 605 for the 

 supply of water to the inhabitants, besides 152 received from the 

 shipping, and 156 from the Board of Ordnance, or a total of 



