Colonial Gazette (Newspaper) - December 22, 1841, London, Middlesex 161.] THE CPrice Sixpence DECEMBER 22, 1841 PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENT AND Should it be true that extensive measures of Emigration are it would be very desirable ut the same time to revise the system of Colonial both in order to obtain the greatest possible benefit from a given amount of and to save this country from those demands for pecuniary aid which colonies sometimes think it a part of their filial relations to A good Governor and an efficient staff of public officers should be given to each and their services should be well paid local services should be paid from local resources but it is already a standing grievance in th Colonies that they are taxed without their own It would get rid of the difficulty to hand over the whole power of with local to the It must be a principle in the consideration of the that the unoccupied lands of our Colonial territories belong to the Such being the of course they are not to be given away to any body of applicants without due return for the benefit of their original the Empire and that return must consist of the utmost possible advantage which can be obtained from the founded on those should be conducted in such manner as not only to be no burden to the parent but to furnish their quota of aid towards the strength and welfare of the empire at In order to they must be governed on a scale commensurate with imperial But if the power of taxation were altogether surrendered to the they would forget the larger interests in their own pettier and would for imperial for as a manner suitable to the empire to which they and the affording due facilities on their part to colonization from the Public virtue has for that observance of Some must be to the Central Government that the dependencies whose existence is permuted fulfil their duty in this One very obvious and simple mode has suggested itself from the expedience of the ease with which the Wakefield system draws money from unoccupied devote a part of the proceeds of to Government In his examination before the Australian last Mr. Wakefield admitted laugh at exhortations to tax themselves their own not advanced far enough given ment would be responsible to them for its proper outlay in or for the To that the imposition of such a tax should be accompanied by the that the old system of considering the Colonies as mere would be altogether and that the principle of responsible would be adhered with the growing estimation of colonies as one great means of relieving our evils at especially if they are promoted to the rank of being a it would be impossible to conduct the government or levy the tax upon any other principle than that of responsibility to the in whatsoever shape it may be rendered or howsoever The discrimination thus made between the price of land and the tax partly overrides Mr Wakefield's second since it cannot be urged that the aspirant landowner should attain his ambition though he is unable to comply with demands made by the state on all other The third objection is of a more permanent it points to the impolicy of imposing any greater burden than the upon the first purchase of The would not tell in the first few years of each colony's But there are other prospective when a colony had subsisted for some the sales of as in the instance of New South Wales divided from Port might bear no proportion to the cost of and it is a graver whether the formation of a large vested independently of frequent drafts on the with the check of their constant might not be liable to gross A time may especially under any rapid extension of Colonial when the prepayment of a would be both inadequate to its purpose and objectionable in At such a though it would be as important as ever to retain the power of Imperial taxation in the Central taxation by the present means of appointed bodies called C by the present coercion of more odious and that of the m t be so employed but he made some objections to it. The chief objection seemed to that if once it were admitted in practice that a part of the of land might be devoted to other than emigration there would be a want of certainty as to the proportions of the money so and a tendency on the part of Government to encroach on the emigration Another objection that js th A 4 It may then be a whether it would not be advisable to convert our Colonies in regard to government what they are already becoming in social an extension of the not mere appendages to integral part of the A Central Representation for the Colonies will then no longer bear The Legislature of British Guiana has a peculiar winch suggests a very different application of its characteristic There is a mainly called the Court of which transacts the general business of a legislature but when it enters upon a certain branch of it is joined by six financial elected by a sort of popular who at such times form an essential part of what already been 1 Combined It has suggested that the Colonies should be represented in our Legi if the price imposed upon land were more than the term of the labouring servitude would be unduly and the French Colonies are about to be represented iu from the increased difficulty of obtaining A third objection Others have thought it more advisable Colonies that if all the money were not devoted to the numbers of the Colonial population would be proportionably kept at a which would have influence but no absolute and that it would therefore be necessary to restrict the An 0f the Guiana constitution appropriation of land in a like proportion and that in order to do vantages of both suggestions price must be raised beyond what would be ad Members returned bv the Colon were the whole proceeds devoted to The plan of using a part of the is so and ready a way of securing a certain amount of taxation for Government that it is worth while to see if the objections be so far obviated as to admit of at least a temporary use of the The first objection perhaps might be met in this ad of placing a certain price upon one portion b fixed e devoted to emigration and another to other mice be put upon the land and the whole be devo avow and then let a second imposition be to be in the light of a might constitute a separate body of Colonial who sit and vote in the House of Commons whenever Colonial subjects were but at no other Though thus limited to the sphere of Colonial the body would acquire considerable importance from their Under this ar- C and Colonies had no voice in their own poses might then safely be left to Local B paid in The distinction is more than for it would relieve ihe of all uncertainty and chance and allow each kind of imposition to be regulated simply to its own special an in 7-^ of in amount crease or without altering for might be effected price of which it might be advisable to keep at a steady Purchasers would require to be assured that the money thus exacted would be expended in a manner consistent with the interests of the settlement upon which it was to be have not always shown themselves averse from a liberal where they could reckon upon sharing in a due control over it. Of this we have a notable example in the New Zealand that possess highly would they proprietary at Port who offered to defray the whole cost of upon condition that they had the use of that and a voice iu the It might not be difficult to obtain very considerable if the taxpayers felt sure that familiarized constitute a valuable appeal court in legislative affairs from the Local such as does not at present and they would furnish the best means of originating great measures which Government hesitates to take and to which the present amateur Colonial Members of the Houses of Parliament can lend no weight of The national importance of our must first be the public mind in this before the consisting of and will come to be regarded as one and before the necessity can be recognized of modifying the Imperial Legislature to represent that At present each colony is either totally or is only represented within as though each English county had a constitution within its own but the whole United Kingdom lay at the mercy of a bureaucracy called a Home as the Colonies are ruled by the Colonial Office power of the Colonial Office can never be truly checked until there
