§ Mr. BURTasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Legislative Council of Rhodesia has lately issued a Labour Tax Ordinance the proceeds of which are handed over to the Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau; whether this bureau is an association of employers whose main object is to recruit and distribute alien labour and to prevent native wages from rising; whether there is any precedent for a tax of this kind being paid over to an unrepresentative corporation; and whether the Home Government has sanctioned a tax so imposed and so allocated?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Harcourt)An Ordinance to impose a tax on all employers of coloured labourers, and to allow the payment of such tax to the Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau was passed by the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council last year. The purpose of the bureau as stated in the Memorandum scheduled to the Ordinance establishing the bureau, is to procure, supply, organise, and regulate native labour for the benefit of its members and other employers of labour in Rhodesia. It is required to look after the interests of the native in various ways, and cannot pay dividends. I am not aware of any exact precedent elsewhere. I do not think that it is altogether accurate to describe the bureau as an unrepresentative corporation as the administration is represented on the Board of Management, and two members of the Board must be elected by members of the association other than joint stock companies. When the Ordinance was passed only one elected member out of seven in the legislative council dissented, and the High Commissioner assented to the Ordinance. Since then considerable discontent has been excited among the farmers, but there is reason to hope that the matter will be satisfactorily settled. I have not so far taken any steps in regard to the disallowance of the Ordinance.