I have always found it unsecured; and I have had several schemes under consideration for rendering it available for our urgent Colonial wants during next hot season pending your Excellency's decision upon the question of the permanent appropriation of the ground. It was therefore with much surprise that I received an Official Report on the 4th Instant that the Military Authorities had without any reference to me whatever appropriated this range and had commenced to erect Barracks and church upon it.
To avoid if possible all unpleasantness, and anxious to believe that such a measure might be the result of inadvertence and was not intended as an act of defiance to authority I directed the Surveyor General to write a private note to Colonel...