TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
267 
grant of land thus bestowed will be, from the first 
moment, an addition to the public revenue. The 
amount of the quit-rent should be small; and being 
so, it will probably be found expedient to make it 
uniformly the same throughout the country. 
“ A tax on rent will form the most considerable 
and unexceptionable source of the revenue to be 
derived from the land. On lands as yet unappro¬ 
priated, however, rent will not commence for a 
series of years. I propose that the tax should not 
be operative until ten years after the date of each 
grant, which may be considered a reasonable time* 
not detrimental to the interest of the state, nor 
likely to prejudice improvement. It will be ex¬ 
pedient, however, that the rate should be deter¬ 
mined at the outset. I conceive that ten per cent, 
of the rents, estimated at the value of a fourth of 
the gross produce of the land, will be a fair rate 
of taxation. In order that the public revenue 
may keep pace with the advance of rents, new 
assessments of the land must be made from time 
to time. To prevent these, however, from be¬ 
coming troublesome to the Government, or vexa¬ 
tious to the proprietors, they should be made for a 
specific time, such, for example, as a period of ten 
years. Consulting, at once, both the interests of 
the State and of the proprietors, I would suggest 
that the amount of each assessment should be de¬ 
termined by arbitrators mutually chosen by the 
Government and the lessees. 
