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transactions are entirely completed.
8. Under date the 28th September, 1921, the
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War Office informed the Colonial Office that the sum of £114,317, 18#. 9d. was owing to this Government on sacount of percentage overpaid under the Defence Contribution Ordinance. i propose that the new each account shall ba opened by the entry of this sum to the credit of this Government, and that, as soon as the Military Authorities are prepared to undertake that certain land will be handed over, the agreed price of that land shall be credited to them. The balance in favour of the Wilitary Authorities will obviously be a larga ons, and the Colony will be responsible to the extent of the whole of that balance for the reprovisioning of the mærrison. For example, taking the value of the land to be handed over at X11,000,000 and deducting $900,000 as the rough equivalent of the refund in respect of defence contribution, the Colony would be under obligation to the extent of 10,100,000 to provide land, the value to be settled by agrement or arbitration, and to construct any new buildings which may be required, then the transactions have been entirely completed and the balance to the credit of the Military Authorities has been exhausted, the cash account will be closed, and the Military Lands Account will be reopened on its present basis.
9. If the Military Authotities are prepared to proceed on the lines which I have indicated, I would ask
immediate
that an aliate comencement may be made by the surrender of the Pinewood Battery area. The rate of transfer of this land was 11.059 cents per square foot and the Director of Public Works reports that the present day all over value is less than half this mún. I suggest that this Government should accept a debit in the new ansh account of the erret mum which was credited to it in the Military Lands Account; the result being that the occupation of the area by the
Military