when
would indeed render it applicable even to actual Crown buildings used as dwellings by the Military, like the instance that in which the Major General resides. They
for
are not
— more than the hired buildings, specifically exempt although as before suggested they possess a prescriptive such exemption.
right.
to
The house hired as a residence
for His Excellency
was
assessed when it
previously was in the occupation of
a mercantile firm who, I believe, still
pay
the rate, while
having been exempted
—
premises
since
they
were
in such cases
— first tenanted, would seem to differ
materially in this respect alone — without enquiring how far they may be otherwise incompatible.
The Landlord positively refuses to allow the rates to be deducted from
253
the rent, nor to alter his agreement unless a corresponding addition be made to the rental. We cannot do without his house; there is no other suitable one to be had, and as it can hardly be expected that the Commissariat officers should contribute even a relative proportion of the rates out of their pay, it follows as a matter of course that the amount must eventually merge into a payment by the Crown to the local revenue — a result, which, if lawful as assumed by Attorney General, would give the money even out of one pocket into the other, while causing much inconvenience and embarrassment, and would be merely paying from one pocket into the other, while as now all difference between the Colonial revenue and expenditure is made up.