of what they
were
doing; and I confess
that after perusing the Proceedings of the ___ Committee, seeing that only eleven claims, representing 43 lots of ground - twenty-two or
one half
of which
are
the property of
one
Claimant, - have been presented to it, and considering the grounds on which these claims are founded, I am thoroughly satisfied that
of the inhabitants have
any equitable claim to reduction in the rates
of ground rent that they respectively pay. "All that I could
say on this subject, however, is so
fully embodied in Mr Mercer's Minute, attached to the Report, that I beg respectfully to refer your Lordship to that Document.
6. I annex to this Despatch some Papers that I have caused to be made out, which
will at once
place before Your Lordship the manner in which all lands in the Colony came into the possession of the present
2
i.
287
occupants, the description of persons by whom
they
are
owned, as well as
the amount
of Rent
paid by them respectively. By document
N°1
marked A
your Lordship will observe that the
Chinese Population hold but a
very
small
portion of the land rented in the Colony, and that they, indeed, only pay
£1576:0:4.- I bring this to
Your
Lordship's
particular notice, because it has been held
in the Colony that respectable Chinese are deterred from settling in it by the present high rate of ground rent, and I shall presently show that on this account the Chinese living within the Town do not pay more than Shillings per head per annum, and that those without do not pay more than 1...
To prevent misapprehension, I would here remark that throughout this Despatch, I have
applied the term Foreigner to every resident not Chinese; under that term, therefore, will be included British and other Europeans, Americans,