§ MR. BUCHANANOn behalf of the hon. Member for Halifax I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, if he can state on whose advice the life of the gold mines is taken as fourteen and a half years for the purpose of the profit tax; and how it is that the profits on which the tax is paid are less than half the profits declared to the shareholders.
§ MR. LYTTELTONThe hon. Member will see on referring to Section 5, Subsection 2, of the Profits Tax Proclamation 1902, published at page 165 of Cd. 1163 that the period of the life of the mines is determined by the Commissioner of Mines. The profits on which the tax is paid do not include the allowance for exhaustion of capital.
§ MR. MARKHAMIs it not the fact that the life of the mines is based solely on one reef of the mines—the south reef, and that no account is taken of any ore n any other reef.
§ MR. LYTTELTONI' must communicate with the Commissioner before I can arrive at what was in his mind.