332 TiMEHRI 



not require a stimulant, and if it is not worth cultivating 

 profitably, then the owner would be taxed for the privi- 

 lege of owning land for which he has already paid the 

 Government too much. A crucial point would lie in 

 what the Government might call " beneficial" occupation 

 and what the owner might consider the " beneficial" 

 occupation to be to him. Perhaps the fewer strings left 

 in the hands of the Government in purchases of Crown 

 Land, the better alike for the Government, the land, 

 and the purchaser. Your suggestions about the sale 

 by Auction of Crown Land, are in my opinion exa6lly 

 what is wanted. It is hard on a man after he has been 

 to the trouble and expense of locating a spot, to have 

 another man bid against him ; one who had perhaps never 

 thought of using the land before for the purpose that the 

 locator has had in view all along. 



I cannot honestly say that " It is manifest to me that 

 all progress in the settlement of British Guiana is re- 

 tarded by the quantities of land that are held in the 

 Dead Hand in the more accessible parts of the 

 Colony." If the lands were worth anything to the 

 " living hand" I have not the slightest doubt that the 

 " dead hand" would rent or sell to the " living hand," 

 or more probably do himself what he expe6led the 

 " living hand" was going to do with the lands to his 

 (the ** dead hand's"^ own profit. [The writer will be 

 glad to do a little business with any gentleman of the 

 Hon'ble. Committee in this line]. What does to some 

 extent obstru6t transa6lions in these private lands is the 

 want of proper transports, 1 use the words to " some 

 extent" because there is plenty of land that has been 

 bought and sold and rented &c., without any transport 



