§ Mr. REESasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies what are the rates of the Hut Tax collected in Rhodesia and in Nyassaland?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY for the COLONIES (Colonel Seely)In Southern and North-Western Rhodesia there is no Hut Tax strictly so-called, but there is in Southern Rhodesia a Native Tax at the rate of £1 per annum for each adult male native, with ten shillings per annum for each wife in excess of one. In Northwestern Rhodesia there is power to provide by proclamation of the High Commissioner for a tax at the same rate, but the amount actually collected is understood to be at the rate of from five to ten shillings per annum, according to the ability of the natives in the various dis- 211 tricts to pay. In North-Eastern Rhodesia the amount of Hut Tax payable varies from three to five shillings for every hut occupied. In Nyassaland the rate is six shillings a hut, or three shillings if the native can show that he has worked one month during the year for a European. In Nyassaland districts may be proclaimed within which the rates shall be double those mentioned, but so far no districts have been so proclaimed.