granted less the value already assessed for the land surrendered. There are many examples of abuses and unfairness within the framework of Letter B which is part of the "fair land policy" as alleged by Mr. Chambers.
(a) At present, there are something like 14,109,963 square feet of agricultural land and 244,198 square feet of house land in Letter B for which Government has not yet been able to make land available for ex- change. Some of these Letter B date back to the early 1960's.
(b) The land owners who hold these Letter B do not derive any income from them whatsoever and if there is Crown Land available, he has to pay the market value for the Crown Land, but the Letter B value is not increased. On a sample mathematical basis, Government has obtained benefits in three respects from such Letter B, namely, (i) the use of the land surrendered and such income which may be derived therefrom; (ii) the Government need to pay no interest on the Letter B granted to the owners; (iii) the Government at the time of exchange, charges the market value which invariably is higher in price than that of the surrendered land which was assessed at a low price at the time of resumption.
6. The Government in granting these Letter B has Promised that they will allow the Letter B owners to exchange their surrendered land for Crown Land when available. There have been many instances of Crown Land being available
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which could be exchanged for the Letter B out- standing, but Government has broken its promise and has sold these Crown Lands at exorbitant price to private investors, leaving the Letter B owners holding empty premises.
7. When Government values land to be surrendered for the purpose of Letter B, the value they asses is minimal yet if the same piece of land was to be valued for the purpose of estate duty or stamp duty purpose, it would be valued at a higher rate and in many instances, something like six to ten times the value of Letter B. Why is there such difference when the valuation is carried out by the same Government Department? 8. To quote an example of Government's attitude in assessing value of land to be surrending, the case relating to the resumption of the village land in High Island Water Scheme is a good example. At the Lands Tribunal, Government called expert witnesses including expert from the Agricultural & Fisheries Department to try and demonstrate to the Tribunal that farming was a bankrupt vocation whereby the farmers were losing money if they farm the land and therefore, in other words, their farming was worthless and in fact they should pay Government compensation for resuming their land. In this case, all the villagers who were the owners of the land collectively engaged legal representatives and land experts to conduct their case before the Lands Tribunal and were therefore able to demonstrate different- ly to the Lands Tribunal and obtained compensa- tion for their land in the region of twice the amount originally offered by Government.
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