it was sale, having so property in the Colony, might quit it, leaving the Government without means of enforcing its just claim.
16.
any
Your Lordships will observe that Messrs Stuart and Davidson, (Despatch A218), recommend the entire abolition of the present Ground Rent, and that some system of assessment be substituted. The opinion of these gentlemen is entitled to much weight, from their intelligence and honesty of purpose, and I have in consequence given every consideration in my power; but I confess I cannot recommend that their plan should be adopted. My reasons for disagreeing with them are much the same as those advanced by Messrs Meever and Smith, but I am principally opposed to their plan, because it appears to me that it would bear most unfairly on those who have improved their lots, and would also render an inquisitive interference in the affairs of Chinese settlers absolutely necessary. This could only take place through the instrumentality of a numerous and unscrupulous crew of Native Police Officers, and would in the end, I am satisfied, do little to relieve those settlers from the taxation at present liable.
17.
In conclusion, I must remark that the sentiments I have expressed in this Despatch are at variance with those I have advanced in former ones on the subject. To this I can only observe that what I then wrote I believed to be the case, but that a further residence in the Colony and a more intimate knowledge of its real state, together with the circumstance that so few claims have been made for a reduction in the land rents, although all feasible means have been resorted to, to induce persons fancying themselves aggrieved to come forward - have