TYNWALD COTT HT. DOUGLAS, TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1899. Present—In the Council : His Excellency the Lieut.-Governor (President), the Lord Bishop, Deemster Sir James Cell, the Receiver-General, and the Vicar-General; in the Keys: Mr A. W. Moore, J.P. (Speaker), Messrs D. Maitland, E. T. Christian, 'I'. Allen, J. C. Crellin, J. D. Clucas, W. Quine, W. Quayle, J. A. Mylrea, W. J. Kermode, J. J. Goldsmith, R. Cowley, T. Clague, J. R. Kerruish, Jos. Qualtrough, James Mylchreest, J. T. Cowell, and E. H. Christian. ACCIDENT TO THE CLERK OF THE ROLLS. The Governor: I am sure you will join with me in sympathising most sincerely with the Clerk of the Rolls for tho very bad accident which has happened to him. We regret it very much in- deed. I understand he is contlned to his house. I am sure we are all very sorry that he is not here to-clay, and I am quite certain we shall join in sympathising with him in his illness. FINANCIAL STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY. The Governor :I propose this morning to make to you as short and concise a statement as 1 can-- I shall make no preface to it—with regard to financial business. If you look at pages 20 and 21 of the statement, you will see he prospective balance on March 31st, 1900, shown there ie £4,500, including £1,700, interest on loans advanced to local bodies. Since the financial statement was issued, I have ascertained that the cost of the volunteers, estimated at £1,000, will not exceed, we will say, £500. The reason for this is that last year we were charged by the War Office in London with new rifles and new equipment, anti this, of course, will not occur again, so that £500 can be added to the surplus, as I have said above. Therefore, the estimated surplus for this year is about £5,000. The true surplus will Accident to the Clerk of the Rolls—Financial Statement. TYNWALD COURT, May 30, 1899. 735 be about £3,350: you will have to take away tie, £1,700 from the £5,000, as this £1,700 is not available for ordinary expenses of Government ; it goes to the accumulated fund. Yon will see, therefore, that I am unable this year—I am compelled, in fact, to with- draw the £1,000 granted in aid of the Lunatic Asylum rate. I have always considered, and it always has been considered, that there should be a balance of £4,000 to meet contingencies. All sorts of things may happen; we may have to spend more money than we anticipate, and so we consider £4,000 the right estimate of the surplus we should have in hand. If I take £1,000 from the balance of £3,350, I have only £2,350 left, and, in my opinion, this is too narrow a balance for safety. Now, if you will turn to pages 22 and 23, you will see that on the 31st March last the funds in hand to the credit of the Island were £23,784 15s 60. During toe current year it is estimated that we shall re ceive from interest and repayment of loan £3,276. These two sums make £27,054 15s 6d, which will be at the disposal of the Insular Government, out of which will have to be provided £19,568 for public works which have already been voted, leaving a cash balance on March 31st of £7,486 15s 60, plus the £3,350, that is it no further charges are incurred—we shall then have a balance of £10,836 15s 6d at the end of the year. I may remind you that by that time the charge for Ramsey Pier will be cleared off, as well as £4,000 on account of the Battery Pier repairs. The original estimate for Ramsey, you will recollect, was £23,002. I should like to say on e word about education Pensions. I have had some correspondence with the. Government in England. You are aware, of course, that it has been agreed to grant pen- sions to teachers in the different schools, and there is a Bill passing through Parliament, and the Government have assured me that they will include the Isle of Man in this Bill, so that we can pass in the usual way here an Act to place teachers in this Island on the same footing as in England. It would be a great pity, in my estima- tion, to discourage the excellent teaching here, and encourage teachers to go away to secure the benefits of the pensions given in England. (Hear, hear.) The schools, as a rule, are ex- tremely good here, and I think we must do all we possibly can to maintain that efficiency. The estimate for this year for these pensions is in. Financial Statement. 736 TYNWALD COURT, May 30, 1899. eluded in the vote for education, and it is esti mated that by all the pensions which are due, a• which will become due for a certain number of years, the extra charge on the revenue will he £200 a year. Now, I will give you some figures from a most interesting calculation made for me, and I think they will interest you very much. They have been prepared by my friend Mr Aitken, who, perhaps, knows more about the finances of the Island than any of us, and I think it will show you also, when I read this to you, how carefully the estimates have been prepared. I takje this opportunity of thanking those at the Government Office for the unremitting care and attention they have given to those matters. —His Excellency then read the following memo randum :— MEMORANDUM. The estimated receipts of the ordinary revenue of the Island for the year ended 31st March, 1899, as shown in the printed financial statement issued in May, 1898, were placed at £75,000, made up as follows:— From Customs duties other than those on tea, tobacco, and cigars and wines £41,740 0 0 Allowance by the Imperial Government in respect of- f. Duties on tea, tobacco, and cigars, and wines 27,080 0 0 2. Duties on goods other than the above 260 0 0 Official fees and stamps, fines, and other miscellaneous receipts ... 2,175 0 0 Boat licences, bay fishery, and other rents under Isle of Man Harbours Act, 1872 1,000 0 0 Rents and tolls from Government pro- perty 1,045 0 0 Interest on loans 1,700 0 0 £75,000 0 0 On the 26th May, 1898, the duty on spirits was raised 6d per gallon, and for the remaining 10 months of the financial year 1898-99 it was esti- mated this addition wou— produce 1,700 0 0 thus bringing the estimated revenue for 1898-99 up to £76,700 0 0 The actual receipts for the year ended 31st March, 1898, amounted to £78,121 5s 4d, made up as follows:— From Customs duties other than those on tea, tobacco, cigars, and wines £43,663 8 2 Allowance by the Imperial Govern- ment in respect of- 1. Duties on tea, tobacco, and cigars, and wines 28,270 0 0 Financial Statement. TYNWALD COURT, May 60. 1899 737 2. Duties on goods other than the above 262 0 0 Official fees, stamps, fines, and other miscellaneous receipts 2,116 10 1 Boat licences, bay fishery, and other rents under Isle of Man Harbours Act, 1872 1,051 11 6 Rents and tolls from Government pro- perty 814 11 10 Interest on loans 1,943 3 9 £78,121 5 4 Under the head of Customs duties, British spirits shows a gain on the estimate of ,R,682 18 7 and beer a gain of 572 0 5 £1,254 19 0 While the following articles show a decrease on their respective estimates :- Rum 1726 6 9 Brandy 112 14 Geneva 135 14 0 Foreign spirits 8 11 3 Coffee and chicory 17 9 8 £1,000 15 10 --- The consumption of British spirits shows a tendency to increase, the imports for the last four years being as follows:— Gallons. 1896 54,723 1897 57,890 1898 57,586 1899 58,445 The consumpti on of beer, al E0', whether Manx cr iinnorteid, ice the mr.t year shows a con&der- able increase ever that for each of the preceding three years. The duty received from beer in the last four years is as follows :— 1896 £5,909 1897 6,155 1898 6.088 1899 6,572 On the other hand, the consumption of rum, brandy, and Geneva, taking the figures of the last four years, seems to point to a falling-or under these heads. The importation of these articles in each of the last four years is as under:— Rum. Gallons 1896 14,761 1897 16,4211 1898 15,488 1899 14,057 Brandy. Gallons . 1896 4,348 1897 4 883 1898 4,329 1899 I 4,233 Financial Statement, 738 TYNWALD COURT, May 30, 1899. Geneva. Gallons. 1896 1897 2,457 1898 ..4 2,240 1899 1,939 With regard to the allowance made by the Imperial Government in respect of the duty on tea, tobacco, cigars, and wine, it will be noticed that the amount paid over to the Insular rev- enue in respect of the past year is £28,270, as against the estimate of £27,080. This increase is entirely under the head of tobacco, and arises from the fact that the receipts from that source of revenue in the United Kingdom were, towards the end of March, unexpectedly swollen by ab- normal payments into the Imperial Exchequer in the belief that the duty on tobacco would be raised.