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Department, in case they are obliged at any future time to obtain land for purposes of Defence in the Colony.
The War Department cont end that the valueto be
either immediately paid for the land, or held to their
credit at call, is the full estimated market value, or the
full actual proceeds of sale, of the land, in accordance
with the probable intention of the Colonial Military
Contributions Committee. The War Department are Trustees
of this land for Defence purposes, and it would be a breach
of Trust if they surrendered it without retaining the right
to resume possession of it, or of its equivalent in land
or money, when required for the purposes of the Trust.
If the future need can be met by something less than this
equivalent, the War Department will be content with less,
for the time being; but their duty as Trustees compels them
to reserve the right of regaining possession of the full
equivalent of whatever they surrender, and the only
practical measure of that equivalent is the sum which the
surrender will enable the Colonial Government to obtain for the land.
On the other hand, the Colonial Office maintain
that the value to be recorded or paid ought to be sub-
stantially less than the full market value of the land,
because the War Department are but limited owners of it,
possessing only a right to its perpetual use for a particu-
lar purpose. The War Department have, it is assumed, no
power of alienating the land from the purpose for which
they hold it in Trust, except by surrendering it to its
reversionary owner, the Colonial Government. The full
market value of the land could not be realised without a
surrender of the rights of both parties, of the War Depart-
ment as potentially permanent occupier, and of the Colonial
Government as reversioner. It would be unfair, therefore,
to