CO129-010 - Sir Henry Pottinger - 1843 — Page 689

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public voice as evinced in the,

the fact that at the recent Sale of Crown Lands every single lot fetched above the upset price,

which upset price corresponding lots,

by

you

or

the Committee.

that not one

was the rent

averaged and fixed

I am also desired to remind

individual in twenty of the purchasers of land at the Sales or Grants authorized by Captain Elliot or Me Johnston fulfilled the prescribed terms of those Sales or Grants, that it thence followed that the greater number of those Sales and Grants might have been declared to be null and void and the land again put up to public competition when its value, had been greatly enhanced

shown by

the late Sales by Auction, that, that enhancement is proved as

well

as

well by the result of those Sales as by the

undeniable and notorious circumstance

that perhaps

the

money

more than three fourths of laid out in this Colony has been expended since the publication of the Notifications already quoted in this letter or, in other words, since the Island became a bona fide possession of the British Crown ; but, the local Government willingly availed themselves of the discretion left to them (under the peremptory restrictions as to

alienations) to disturb as little as was consistent with the general interests of society and the well being of the Colony,

the acts of former Authorities.

At the same time, His Excellency the Governor in Council distinctly and unhesitatingly declares that - whatever

may