COFY.
Enclosure 2.
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Hon. Colonial Secretary,
The view expressed by His Excellency in paragraphs 4 and 5 of the draft is I think correct.
In the case of so-called "Military Reserves" of the class indicated by the letter from the General Officer Commanding to the Acting Colonial Secretary dated 12th July, 1897, enclosing Colonel Storer's proposal as to Sywan Hill, to which proposal the Colonial Government consented in the Acting Colonial Secretary's reply dated 28th July, 1897, I am of opinion —
(1) that the War Department has only a right to call for the reserved areas when they are required for Military purposes, paying the Colony their market value;
(2) that when, and so far as, the reserved areas are not required for Military purposes, the War Department's right is ipso facto determined; and
(3) that the Colony, in consenting to reserve an area, does not assign to the War Department the ownership of the land, or the building rights upon it, but merely agrees that (as the matter is expressed in the letter from the Colonial Office to the War Office dated 23rd July, 1904,) no part of the reserved area shall be disposed of till it has been decided how much of it is required for Military purposes, and that meanwhile the Colony's active rights of ownership such as building rights shall (as His Excellency expresses it in paragraph 5 of the draft) be held in abeyance.
(Sd.). H. Sharp.
12th October, 1904.