§ Mr. GUINNESSasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state at what date and under what ordinance the system of revising rents on a basis of 5 per cent. on prairie value at the thirty-third and sixty-sixth years of ninety-nine year leases was introduced into the British East Africa Protectorate; whether this provision was approved by the Legislative Council; if so, whether that approval was unanimous or only obtained through the preponderance of the official vote; and when he expects that the amended Crown Lands Ordinance foreshadowed in Command Paper 4117, of 1908, will be issued?
Mr. HARCOURTThe system was introduced by Rules dated the 28th February, 1911, made by the Governor, under Section 33 of the Crown Lands Ordinance, 1902. The approval of the Legislative Council is not required for Rules made under that Section. An Ordinance is now being drafted on the lines laid down in Lord Elgin's despatch of the 19th March, 1908, but I am not yet in a position to say when it will be issued.
1807W
§ Mr. GUINNESSasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state whether a Land Tax graduated according to the size of the holding, as outlined in Command Paper Cd. 4117, of 1908, is now in force, or about to come into force, in the British East Africa Protectorate; if so, does it apply even in those cases where the revising of rents by the Government on a basis of five per cent. of capital prairie value will absorb the whole unimproved annual value, and where such tax must fall directly upon the tenant's improvement?
Mr. HARCOURTNo Land Tax is at present in force, but the Governor has been instructed to include provision for such a tax in a new Lands Ordinance, which is now being drafted.