§ MR. SUMMERBELLI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the cost per head of immigrants introduced into the Island of Trinidad is about £27 10s., towards which employers only contribute £5, the remaining £22 10s. being made up by one-third from general revenue, and two-thirds from an export tax on produce, 1799 or in other words an annual charge to the Colony of some £20,000; and, if so, whether he will recommend that the deficit anticipated in the Estimates of the Colony should be met by the saving of this annual expenditure in preference to the suggested increase in the local tariffs.
§ MR. HARCOURTThe cost of indentured immigration varies; in the last completed financial year it was about £24 per head. Employers pay an indenture fee of £5 per head and contribute to the Immigration Fund by the payment of export duties. From the Immigration Fund two-thirds of the total cost of immigration is paid; the other third, amounting to some £20,000, is paid from general revenue. As the Under-Secretary of State stated in his reply to the hon. Member on the 27th ultimo, the Secretary of State does not propose that this system should be changed.