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ban well afford to pay liberally for the relief. I do not propose to reply at length in this letter to the points discussed in the letter of Mr. Ordish to the Commodore or in the Commodore's Remarks to the Vice Admiral. These are under consideration and will be dealt with in an early communication in accordance with His Excellency's request. I desire to submit now for his consideration some further information and some remarks in connection with the Memorandum sent in by the Acting Director of Public Works.
In my letter of the 2nd May I estimated the quantity of land to be acquired by the Colony in the centre of Victoria by the removal of the present Naval Yard at 980,200 square feet and its value, after deducting the cost of filling in &c, at $6 per square foot or $5,881,200. Mr. Chatham does not question the correctness of this estimate as to the area, but he disputes the value. He calls attention to the fact that the area given by me is the gross area and that, allowing for roads, streets &c, only 50% of that will be saleable. He is further of opinion that $8 a foot might be realized by the sale of the building land but not in addition to the cost of reclamation. In other words he puts the saleable area as 490,000 square feet and the net profits to the Colony as only $3,910,600, estimating the sale price as $8 a square foot out of which has to be paid the cost of reclamation for 525,000 square feet at $3.2 a foot. As the probable value of this land to the Colony is by far the most important point in connection with the scheme and the one on which, probably, the entire question will ultimately be decided by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. I have now the honor to forward for the consideration of His Excellency the Governor and of the Secretary of State, an enlarged plan of the ground now occupied by the Naval establishments, plus what remains to be reclaimed to be filled in to the line of the proposed new Praya, as it will be laid
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