CO129-013 - Sir John Davis - 1845 [8-12] — Page 71

the "Homs and tenure of all

property would hereafter be de- fired by HM. Government :

Tut in a letter of Hall. Plenipotentiary, dated 17th June 1841, copy of which is hereunto annexed, au cxpectation was held out, that the lands would be granted.

fee simple, for one or two years. purchase at the rates paid at the public sale; or that they should be charged only with a nominal quit rent, if that form of secure

continued to obtaini

This

suggestion on the part, of H. M. Menipotentiary, triginated. in the well known fact, that the very limited quantity of ground, available for Building purposes on the proposed site of the present Foun

of Victoria, the

occasion of

great competition, and the eventual payment of a scale of Heart, which that officer naturally and truly apprehended, would, it enforced, be injurious to the progress and prosperity of the Settlement;

During the time, which intervened between the occupation. of the Island by H.M. Government, in March 1841, and the Treaty of, Nankin, in June 1843, a

period of

upwards of two Fears, the Local

Government of Hongatong used every

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endeavour, both by facilities tem- porarely offered to early occupants

of land, and the threat of penalty,

of forfeiture of their purchase to all who did not commence

building to induce the British atterchants to

from Mlacas to the new Settlement; and nothing was, up to that date, said or done, to induce holders of land to apprehend, either that the promises of Hall. Pleni- potentiary would not be strickly fulfilled, or that they would be placed in a more unfavorable situation, than parties similarly. circumstan.ced in other British Colonies.

Large

sums were consequently sxpended in the erection of Devettings and Warehouses in the New Toron of Victoria, to an extent, which would have rendered it injurious to all; and ruinous to many, be compelled to abandon their :property, and it was not untill the early part of 1843, that it was notified: "That Hell. Government

did not see fit to recognise

•

4

Grants of land, that had been made by or under any authority. whatsoever, up to the period of the exchange of the ratification.

of the treaty of Nankin. "

But as Hb. ett. Sovernment

must