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cost of the Scheme.
4. (1) The expenditure required for preparing, Defraying developing and carrying out the said Scheme shall be authorised and appropriated from time to time by Resolutions of the Legislative Council, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, and shall be defrayed from a Fund, to be established and kept at the Treasury, into which shall be paid all sums which have been or may be received by the Government in respect of the sale of the City Hall and Beaconsfield Arcade sites as well as all sums to be received from land sales in connexion with the Scheme.
(2) Should the Fund at any time be insufficient for carrying out the Scheme or any portion thereof, advances or appropriations from the general revenues of the Colony shall be authorised by Resolutions of the Legislative Council, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, in order to make good the deficiency.
(3) When the said Scheme is completed or is abandoned or otherwise terminated, any balance there may be standing to the credit of the Fund shall be appropriated by the Treasurer to the general revenue of the Colony under the heading or classification of Land Sales.
Evidence of Governor's decision or
5. A certificate under the hand of the Colonial Secretary shall be conclusive evidence for all purposes whatsoever of any decision or opinion of the Governor under this Ordinance opinion. and of the terms and effect of any such decision or opinion.
Objects and Reasons.
1. The Government House and City Development Scheme authorised by this Ordinance is essentially a self- contained unit which will be proceeded with as circumstances permit.
2. The Scheme involves the sale from time to time of building sites which it is anticipated will yield more than sufficient to pay for the entire undertaking, though it may be necessary at certain stages to obtain advances from the revenues of the Colony.
3. To pay into the general revenue of the Colony the large sums which have been or will be received from time to time in connexion with such land sales would result in apparent fluctuations in the normal revenue of the Colony which it is desirable to avoid.
4. As, however, the proposal that revenue receipts from such land sales should pass into a special Fund, instead of to revenue, and that the expenditure on the Scheme should be met from the Fund and authorised by Resolutions of the Legislative Council involves a departure from the ordinary rules of Colonial Accounting, the Secretary of State, in approving the proposal, has required that the Scheme should be conducted under a special Ordinance which would legalise the diversion of the revenue from land sales from general revenue to the Fund and would also empower the appro- priation of the expenditure on the Scheme by Resolutions of the Legislative Council.
R. E. LINDSELL,
Attorney General.
Mou 1934.