§ MR. BARTLEYI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any decision has been come to to refund the additional income tax charged at the rate of 1s. in the £ on the overdue interest on the debentures of the Jamaica Railway for the years 1897, 1898, and 1899, which was paid out of money supplied by Parliament last year, but the payment of which was withheld till May last.
§ SIR M. HICKS BEACHI have no doubt, after inquiry from the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, that the income tax of 1s. in the £ was legally charged in this case. The only ground, therefore, on which a claim for relief could be sustained is that suggested in the question that the payment of the interest was due while the income tax stood at 8d. in the £, and was delayed by the fault of the Colonial Government. I have ascertained from the Colonial Office that, under the arrangement made with the trustees of the bondholders, the latter did not become entitled to the payment of the arrears of interest and to the issue of inscribed stock in exchange for their bonds until the final decree of the Supreme Court of Jamaica in the matter was made—namely, on the 11th April, 1900—when the income tax stood at Is. in the £, and that the Executive Government of Jamaica cannot be held in any way responsible for the delay, if any, in the issue of the decree. I do not, therefore, see any sufficient grounds for submitting a Vote to Parliament to defray the cost of the remissions desired, which would be the only legal mode of affording relief.