payment of £100 rather than £200 to rent
for anything, but when, instead
and of
dealing with generalities, the Memorialists prove the motive of this Government not to have
been what I expected but to have made an effort to get the greatest amount procurable with certainty, they
will then have advanced a step further towards establishing their case. Till then their argument, which by
afar seemed to me and my Executive Council to be throughout unworthy of belief, is but
is but a dreary and unapplied platitude, that commands universal
disregard. I now pass to another part of
12.
the subject on which the Memorialists
246
and which I may designate
greatly rely, their personal argument - they assume,
or at least mention it to have been stated that a Mr. Caldwell, formerly Registrar General of the Colony, had in some way negotiated or conducted the grant of the Cowcumbung Farm, and that the subject is thereby invested with a
painful interest."
13.
I
shall not encumber this despatch
by any protracted inquiry into the personal merits or demerits of Mr. Caldwell. He has
no connection with
Government
and the point is irrelevant. My attention was first called to his case
by a very unexpected appeal to me in his favor by the Members of
the Legislative Council.