§ COLONEL BERESFORDasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether, in consequence of the Governor Generalship of the whole of the Western Coast of Africa having been conferred upon the Governor of Sierra Leone, the latter Colony has not been taxed to the amount of £2,000 per annum for the maintenance of a yacht for his Excellency's use?
§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSENsaid, that the hon. and gallant Gentleman was under a complete misapprehension as to the Colony of Sierra Leone having been taxed to the amount of £2,000 a-year for the maintenance of a yacht for the Governor's use. The fact was that the Committee which sat on the subject of the African Settlements in 1865 recommended, among other things, that those several Colonies should be brought under one head — Governor at Sierra Leone. That recommendation was adopted, and was part of an economical arrangement which enabled the Government to withdraw troops from those settlements, and save expense in other ways. But inasmuch as the expense of the local governments was thus increased, it was thought right, in carrying out 1676 that arrangement, that steam communication not at the expense of the Colonies, but of the Imperial Exchequer, should be provided, and a charge of £5,000 for that purpose had appeared on the Estimates ever since.