§ MR. MCDERMOTT (Kilkenny, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, seeing that the levying of the hut tax in the British West African Settlements has been condemned by successive Governors of Lagos, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast as an unsuitable method of raising taxation, generally calculated to lead to disturbances, he can state the reasons which led the Colonial Office to enforce a tax declared to be objectionable in its incidence?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIESThe statement that a hut tax has been condemned by successive Governors of Lagos, Sierra Leone, and Gold Coast is not correct. For the reasons for which the hut tax was imposed in Sierra Leone, I would refer to the statement I made on the 10th instant.