CO129-293 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [8-9] — Page 601

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Hon. Colonial Secretary.

I regret that various circumstances have prevented me from being able to give full consideration to this important subject at an earlier date.

With reference to the questions put to me by the Acting Colonial Secretary in his minute of the 20th ultimo,

I am of the following opinion :-

(1) That the Jubilee Committee are trustees of the money subscribed.

(2) and (3) That as such trustees they are bound by any special terms and conditions under which they invited the public to subscribe.

So far as I can see from the heading of the subscription list (See C.S.O.1098(1) of 1897) the Committee invited the public to contribute to a Road round the island, pure and simple, and not to any particular section of that road.

One cannot, however, ignore the fact that the 3rd Resolution was published immediately in the newspapers, and that, therefore, certain subscribers may reasonably have interpreted the heading to the subscription list by the light of the terms of the 3rd Resolution, and may have reasonably believed that the section of the road round Mount Davis would be the first section undertaken, and it may be that such subscribers (especially the Chinese) would not, some of them, have contributed