fairly with reference to these paid by other, who would also have probably bid for the Lots, had they entertained the idea that the rate would be at a future period reduced, or could such reduction be effected without involving the felony in
A MENEL ending controversy, - I would recommend that
the rents should be so reduced; but if a general seduction were to take place, while it would have the effect, on the one hand, of simply satisfying those who have cause of complaint, it would, on the other, go to lower the rents paid by more than one half of the landholders in the Colony, who have no just reason to complain.
On the whole, therefore, all that I can venture to suggest is that I may be authorized to extend the term for which the lands are at present held, viz., for 75 years, to any other term that your Lordship may approve of. At Singapore, the term is for 999 years, but the intention in making a tenure of so long a duration there was to convey to the landholders all the advantages that attach to a permanent Grant, without saddling them with the insecurity sometimes attending the tenure of Real Property, which in a purely Mercantile Community might prove an embarrassment.
I have the honour to be,
With the highest respect,
Your Lordship's Most Obedient Humble Servant