C 173
committed value of the Crown rent.
If the capitalized value of the Crown Rent of land surrendered by the War Department is not to be charged to the Colony it will follow that, if in the future the War Department should desire to surrender the road of approach to the Hospital, the War Department, though crediting the Colony in the Colonial Military Lands Account with the capital value of the Crown rent, will receive no equivalent credit when the land is surrendered.
The Army Council have always admitted that the capital value of the Crown rent on land surrendered by the Colony should be credited to the Colony in the Account, but this admission necessarily involves the converse, and the Council can see no justification for treating the acquisition and the surrender of land in the Colony on different lines.
I am to observe that the argument contained in the closing sentence of your letter would be equally applicable to all Colonial military land and would appear to involve the practical abolition of the Military Lands Account.
For, whenever a Colony surrenders land to the War Department, it loses during the continuance of the military occupation any rent that might be obtained therefor