Cour
1. Under Captain Elliot's notification, the lands were put up to Auction; the biddings were required to be for a certain annual payment - to which the name of Quit Rent was given; and the whole terms were explained to be subject to the Queen's Pleasure. We have analyzed with some care the particulars of the Sales under this and subsequent notices, and where the Returns have conflicted, have endeavoured to adopt the result which seems most correct. It appears that the number of Lots sold under Captain Elliot's notice was 33; – that they amounted in the aggregate to an acres; and that the Annual payment was £3032.
This amounts to an average of $7-8, 6 per Thousand Square Feet: a price which we believe any one conversant with the value of building Land in England would acquiesce to be exceedingly large. It may be enough for present purposes to remark that it is equal to a rate of more than £323 per Annum for the acre. Observing this result, we cannot for a moment hesitate in expressing our assent to the view thrown out by Sir Henry Pottinger in his Dispatch 20. 7 that it would only be just to confirm the marine lots at the prices they fetched at Auction upon leases for 35 years.
But we should advise reconsideration of the suggestion... £7.9.6