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fictitiously purchased, – in other words that they were a ciò purchased on speculation for resale. On 27, indeed, deprect was paid, but the parties refused to take them, as they found they could not re-sell them to advantage. On the remaining lots, no deposit was paid, and Leases taken out for the same reason.
It appears to me that, colling the rents that should have been payable on these Lots, (had the purchasers fulfilled their agreements), the amount of the rents due on these 49 lots, viz. £1425, should be deducted from the gross rent of £15699. This will leave £14,274 as the highest rate of annual rental that has ever been derivable from the colony.
There still remain 81 lots to be accounted for that have reverted to the Government, and which afforded an annual rent yielding £2,879. Of these, 5 Lots yielding an annual rent of £185 have been resumed by the Government for its own purposes, and this sum must be deducted from £2,879, which leaves an annual loss of £2,694.
76 lots were fairly and honestly purchased, and the quit-rent paid on them; but in consequence of the progress of the colony not progressing in the way that it was expected to do, the proprietors have requested permission to abandon them, preferring to relinquish them altogether, to continuing to pay the present high rate of quit rent. Should Your Lordship therefore consider that the loss sustained by the Government ought to be calculated on the 76 lots alone, and forming the highest total amount of quit-rent to have been on the 76 lots be £2,694, added to £14,274, it seems that the loss by Government, by their lands, amounts to about 19 per cent, instead of 27, as reported in the concluding paragraphs of my Despatch of 15th November, No.89.
Kue Popy
(Signed) Milaine
Colonial Secretary
I have, &c.,
(Signed) & Go Bonham
True Copy
Colonial Secretary