§ MR. SERJEANT SIMONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether information has been received at the Colonial Office that the Legislative Council of Jamaica, consisting, at present, of official members only, have passed the Estimates and a Vote of Credit for the second half-year of the current financial year, notwithstanding 895 the express instructions of Lord Derby's second Despatch, of the 1st December 1883, paragraph 6, directing the Governor
To reserve the Estimates for the remainder of the year now current for the consideration of the full Council;if so, will he explain why and by what authority this deviation from Lord Derby's instructions has taken place?
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYAt the time when the Secretary of State directed the Governor to reserve the Estimates for the consideration of the new Council, it was hoped and believed that the Order in Council constituting the new form of representation would have been passed in time for the elections to be held under it early enough to have a Council duly constituted before more than half of the financial year had elapsed. But, owing to the unavoidable delays caused by inquiries held by Commissioners appointed on the spot, and by the consideration of their Report at home, the Order in Council, though now settled, has not yet been sent out to the Colony. The registration and elections must take some time, so that it would virtually be impossible to summon the new Council before June or July next. By that time more than two-thirds of the financial year, ending September 30, will have expired, and, therefore, more than two-thirds of the expenditure incurred. It was therefore decided, after much consideration, that it would be both more straightforward, more satisfactory, and more fair to the new Members themselves to substitute for a second Vote of Credit a Vote passing the Estimates as they stood for the previous year, without any increase and without any alteration beyond absolutely inevitable modifications in details.