CO129-367 - Acting Governor May - 1910 [6-7] — Page 233

-duo to

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outstanding questions concerning Colonial Military Lands.

It is, therefore, in no conten-

-tious spirit that I find myself obliged, on behalf of this

Government, to resist the claim made by the Army Council in

this case.

2.

I have taken advantage of the

fortuitous circumstance that Mr. M. W. Slade, K.C., the

leader of the local Bar, who has been temporarily acting

as Attorney-General and who has had in the past no con-

-nection with the Government of the Colony and is in all

probability never likely to be connected with it again, to

refer the question to him for his opinion, and I enclose

a copy of the Memorandum he has written on the subject. His

43

opinion that the contention of the Army Council is un-

-tenable and that a principle is involved which this

Colony must resist.

3.

I am unable to follow the argu-

-ment used in the third paragraph of the letter from the

War Office to the effect that this Government by waiving

the Crown Rent on Spring Gardens gave the War Department

the right of perpetual user of the property. This view

appears to be entirely erroneous. The fact of one person

becoming the owner whether by gift or purchase of a

ground