contributed anything at all if they had not believed that a level road round from Kennedy Town to Aberdeen would be constructed in the first instance.
It will be noticed too that the 3rd Resolution which was published six days before the date of the subscription list, contains, in connection with the particular section in question of the road, the following words.
# Which the Government undertakes to commence forthwith".
599*
Moreover the matter does not rest there, for, by searching in the Daily Press (see the Daily Press of the 6th of May, 1897) I have ascertained that the Government tied their own hands pretty firmly on this question at the time when the subscription lists were being circulated.
From the issue of the Daily Press, which is above referred to, you will see that you, as Honorary Secretary of the Jubilee Committee, forwarded to His Excellency the late Governor, on the 3rd May, 1897, the three specific Resolutions which had been passed by the Jubilee Committee on the 26th of April, and expressed "a hope that they would meet with the approval of the Government". It also appears, from the same correspondence that you, as Colonial Secretary, replied on the 5th May to that letter, stating that the resolutions meet with the approval of the Government".
Now it seems to me that that correspondence can only be construed in one sense, namely, as binding the Government to construct the road round Mount Davis, and as committing them