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this Department, fallen under the circular despatches
cited, inasmuch as the capitalized value of the crown
rent was in each case credited to the Colonial
Government in the account when the residue of each
lease was purchased by this Department from the
private owner. The view of the Colonial Government
that the Spring Gardens property, similarly acquired,
does not fall thereunder seems, therefore, untenable.
3.
In regard to (b) I am to say that had the
lease of Spring Gardens been acquired after the issue
of the despatch of the 30th December 1894 (which
instituted the Colonial Military Lands account)
instead of in 1957, the capitalized value of the Crown
rent would have been credited in the account to the
Colonial Government; but to do so now would not only
be opposed to paragraph 10 of the circular of the 30th
December 1894, but it would defeat the object with which
the account was instituted, viz:- that the integrity
of the then existing permanent defence fund of the
Colony should be preserved in kind or value. The
defence fund of the Colóny in 1894 included not only
the lands that had hitherto been provided free by the
Colony, but also the interest of the Colony in such
properties as Spring Gardens, which interest had been
freely placed at the disposal of the Department by the
waiving