}
COPY
(57.
MEMORANDUM.
Chief Staff Officer.
451
The General Officer desires that the Acting
Colonial Secretary should be further informed with reference
to the previous memorandum of this date on the subject of Gun
Club Hill site that he adheres to the view that this whole
question can only be decided by the respective Secretaries
of State.
The question of whether any or what compensa-
tion or purchase money should be paid by the War Department
to the Colony for sites occupied by War Department buildings
on Military Reserves or on what basis the sum should be cal-
culated is one which it is not within the competence of the
local officers to decide. Accordingly His Excellency in report-
ing to the Secretary of State for War is making no ex parte
valuation of the site, nor raising any detailed question of
the accuracy of the figures given by the Director of Public
Works.
When the Secretaries of State have settled the
basis of an agreement, it will be time enough to examine the
detailed figures.
The Officers of the Colonial Government have
made no distinction between the terms of purchase of lands
within the Military Reserves. This again is a question which
can only be settled jointly by the Secretaries of State.
10.6.98.
#
(Sa.) H ELSDALE
Colonel, C.R.E.
•
The