TAXATION IN MALTA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 46, 24 February 1939, Page 7

TAXATION IN MALTA

MEMORIAL SIGNED PROTEST TO RING Received Feb. 23, 6.30 p.m. MALTA, Feb. 22. All the former members of the Senate and of the Assembly signed a memorial which the ex-Speaker is submitting to the Governor for presentation to the King, protesting against the promulgation on February 24 of ordinances increasing the property and corporation taxes. This is the first time in the history of Malta that taxation has been imposed without representation.

Leaders of all parties signed the memorial

A new Constitution is to be pro' claimed on February 25.

Under the Constitution established in 1921, Malta was, until June, 1930, governed by an elected Legislature (a Senate and a Legislative Assembly) subject to a veto exercised by the British Governor. The Constitution was suspended in 1930 because of religious strife on the island affecting the holding of free elections and again in 1933 through political unrest. Malta was thenceforward governed as a Crown Colony except that the previous Ministry, headed by Lord Strickland, former Prime Minister, was retained in an advisory capacity. A Royal Commission was set up to inquire into the political situation with a view to restoring some form of selfgovernment, and in July last year.it was announced in the British Parliament that Malta would be granted a new Constitution involving the establishment of a new legislature “in which the people would be associated (through elected representatives with the government of the Colony.