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arrangement agreed upon in 1924.
The 1924 proposal, which unlike the
present proposal involved the removal of the troops
away from the Island altogether to the mainland,
affected certain other military lands apart from
those now in question, and their total value was
estimated to be $17,000,000. It was agreed that
they should be dealt with through the Military
Lands Account, and the Colonial Government therefore
had to assume responsibility for re-provisioning up
to this amount. Moreover, the construction of
alternative accommodation was contemplated to take
from five to ten years, which meant that the
Colonial Government could not have expected any
return for its outlay for some considerable time.
The present transaction, however, would
not be made through the Military Lands Account, and
the Colonial Government would therefore not be
liable for the full value of the land and buildings
surrendered, but only for the immediate costs of
re-provisioning, subject to a maximum which is not
expected to exceed $5,000,000. The full advantage
of the proposed arrangement is apparent from the fact that (a) the value of lands to be vacated by
the Military is estimated at something over $10,000,000 and (b) the land to be made available
for new barracks is either Crown land of no present
commercial value(i.e. the Colonial Government will
not lose any substantial part of its capital
assets) or village land. In the latter case the
cost of resumption will be small and in any case
will