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compulsory powers of taking lands for the purposes of the Ordinance to cease at the end of three years from the passing of the Ordinance (see section 125) but by section 24 the powers of construction &c were to expire if the Company did not within three years (after the time at which they night have commenced) complete the Tramways authorized and open them for public traffic, unless the time was prolonged by the
Governor-in-Council.
Unfortunately, the Ordinance of 1883 left the matter in a less satisfactory condition. I doubt whether the draftsman intended, in the 1883 Ordinance, to alter the time limit, for he inserted the clause 125 of the Ordinance of 1882 in to the Ordinance of 1883, where it became section 121, thus limiting the "compulsory powers" to three years from the coming into operation of the Ordinance; but when he transferred section 24 of the 1882 Ordinance to that, of 1885, where it became (with slight amendments) Section 26, he forgot, possibly, that under the 1883 Ordinance "the Company" was (see Section 4,1.e. the substituted section 4 set forth in 18 of 1883). the grantee from the Promoters of the right to construct &c so that until there was a granter, the company did not exist and so the time at which "they might under the Ordinance have commenced the constructions &c", never comienced.
If this technical construction is allowed, it seens to follow that until the Promoters made a grant "with the essent and approval of the Governor in Council", the time from which the three years was to run does not commence. It is upon reasoning of this kind that the Promoters seem to claim for all time, until the Ordinance is repealed, a right to make a grant of the right to construct, a although some of the routes
may have ceased to be as suitable for the purpose as others, owing to local changes and especially the construction of the New Praya.
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