MODE OF RAISING TAXES. 355 



ingly distributed into two classes, viz. the Royal, and the Ward 

 roads. This arrangement has since been abandoned, and there is, 

 at present, no road maintained from the general funds of the 

 colony; though the grant of 8 sterling per diem of active 

 service, to the steamer " Lord Harris," for plying between the 

 northern and southern divisions of the island, may be regarded as 

 a departure from the principle now in operation. 



Important as these questions are, they however yield preced- 

 ence to that which arises from the mariner in which the tax is 

 assessed. Direct taxation is oppressive per se, but it becomes 

 more so, when it is not made to bear on all equally, or at least, as 

 equally as possible; and this is the case with the Territorial 

 Ordinance. It establishes a privilege in favour of the producers 

 of exportable articles ; for, part of their property is exempt from 

 taxation, as shown by the following clause of the Ordinance : 

 " Provided also and be it enacted, that as regards all land 

 cultivated or in pasture, the rate hereby imposed on houses, 

 shall be paid only in respect of the principal dwelling-house 

 on any such lands, and any house or building, which may 

 be let or used as a shop, or which may be let out for rent, 

 and not on any other house or building on such lands" (Clause 

 XXVIII.) Therefore, all buildings, directly or indirectly used 

 for the manufacture or curing of sugar, cacao, coffee, &c., are 

 exempted from taxation ; so that the; privilege is clearly granted to 

 those who are possessed of a larger amount of property. A cacao, 

 or coffee, but especially a sugar estate, is of no value except as 

 mere tracts of land under cultivation without the mill and 

 curing trays of the former, the engine or mill, the boiling, curing 

 and mogass houses of the latter, or without the labourers' cottages, 

 and the stock sheds or pens of both. I have said and I reiterate 

 the assertion that our prosperity entirely rests on the cultivation 

 of the exportable articles, and of sugar, in particular : their pro- 

 duction, therefore, must be encouraged by all just and reasonable 

 exceptions, but, in no case, ought legislation to be warped and 

 rendered partial for the purpose. Afford encouragement to the 

 planter, by aiding immigration, by exempting from taxation the 

 agricultural implements, machinery, and other articles, which may 

 be used in carrying on cultivation or manufacture ; for this is no 

 privilege : but, never exempt any part of an estate from a charge, 

 which another property is made to bear; for this is privilege, 



E, 



