304
As however the Military Authorities have re-
fused the offer made of an exchange, that offer now no longer
remains open, and the alternative proposal that a fair valua-
tion of the ground below Bowen Road Hospital should be made
and the sum agreed on credited to the Colony in the land ac-
count with the Imperial Government alone remains to be consi-
dered.
4. This counter proposal may be divided into two
parts, the one relating to the value of the land, and the other
to the manner in which the value of the land shall be enjoyed
hy the Colony.
5. Your Excellency will observe that the total
value to the Colony of the site is, according to Mr.Ormsby,
$56,250,made up of $26,250 premium if sold at public auction
at 15 cents a sq. foot and of $30,000, being the capitalised
value at 25 years' purchase of the Crown Rent estimated at
$300 an acre per annum.
6. I see no reason to find fault with the pre-
mium value, which seems to be reasonably based on the selling
price of adjacent sites in 1896.
As regards the capitalised value of the annual
Crown Rent derived from an auction sale of the site, I think
that it is fair to add this sum to the premium.
It is true that the land is not at present
yielding a return to the Government, but that is due to the
fact that it has been kept back from being auctioned at the
special request of the Military Authorities, and there can be
no