THE TERRITORIAL ORDINANCE. 357 



the pens and outhouses, being comprised, together with the mill, 

 under one and the same valuation. As to cacao and coffee houses 

 or any other similar buildings, they should be valued according 

 to their size, or the area of the curing trays. 



The Territorial Ordinance bears another feature which, in my 

 opinion, leaves it open to serious objections : the tax is not uni- 

 form, but, on the contrary, varies according as the land is under 

 cultivation, or otherwise. I remember that the leading objection 

 to the export duty was its being a " tax on industry ; " whereas 

 the planter was made to pay in proportion to his produce and 

 consequently in proportion to his exertions and it was mainly on 

 the ground of that objection, that the export tax was done away 

 with. Now, is not the present plan as objectionable, and even 

 more so, since the tax thus levied on industry is so utterly dis- 

 proportionate ? For, the moment the land is cleared and brought 

 under cultivation, its value is enhanced from " ten shillings " 

 sterling to " ten pounds sterling " the acre. (Clause XXIV.) This 

 provision implies that cultivation gives value to land ; true but 

 that value may vary, and really does vary, according to the article 

 cultivated. Therefore, the tax, to be just, ought to vary with the 

 article cultivated. The principle was acted upon in the first 

 Territorial Ordinance, passed in the year 1847 u And be it enacted 

 that such rate shall be made upon all lands, upon the value of the 

 same, estimated as follows : that is to say lands cultivated in 

 sugar-canes at thirteen pounds sterling the acre ; lands cultivated in 

 cacao, coffee, cotton, provisions, or other cultivation except sugar- 

 canes, at six pounds ten shillings sterling the acre ; pasture lands, 

 at three pounds five shillings sterling the acre ; and uncultivated 

 lands at thirty shillings sterling the acre." (Clause XXV.) The 

 Ordinance was amended in 1852, and this clause altered in the 

 following manner : " And be it enacted that such rate shall be 

 made upon all lands upon the value of the same estimated as 

 follows : that is to say lands in cultivation, whatever may be the 

 nature of the cultivation, and pasture lands, ten pounds sterling the 

 acre ; and uncultivated lands, at ten shillings sterling the acre." 

 (Clause X2QV.) So that the value of sugar lands was reduced from 

 thirteen to ten pounds, and the value of cacao, coffee, provisions, 

 &c., increased from six pounds ten shillings to ten pounds sterling 

 the acre. It may not be out of place to remark that, if the value 

 of sugar lands has diminished from the year 1847 to the year 1852, 



