L-4.

that previous to the expiration of the first three years' tenancy the Provincial Government determined the agreement for occupation by paying them the sum of £3,000; that subsequently the Provincial Government leased the store to them at a rental of £250 per annum; that in July 1877 the General Government put up the said lease by public tender; that they accepted a lease of the said store with the adjoining stores at the yearly rental of £3,000; that the Government entered into storage competition at reduced rates; that in March, 1879, they surrendered to the Government one of the stores, and they then made arrangements for the erection of stores at Officer's Point under an arrangement for a railway siding, which was not carried out, but it was arranged that a new lease of the Government store should be given them for twenty-one years, which was not given effect to; that the stores were to be put up to lease by auction unless they agreed to pay £1,246 as rent from the 30th September, 1879, to the 15th October, 1880. They pray that an inquiry be made into their case and relief granted to them. lam directed to report: That, having heard the petitioner's agents, and no new evidence being offered, the Committee adhere to their former decision, viz., Having carefully considered the case of the petitioners, the Committee recommend that the petition, together with the evidence thereon and the draft summary submitted by the Chairman to the Committee, bo forwarded to the Government for consideration. 31st July, 1883.

Appendix to Eeport on No. 189. Summary of Dealings with the Lyttelton Store Sites, by the Chairman of the Public Petitions Committee, at the request of the- Committee. It appears, from the papers submitted to the Committee, that the dealing with the Lyttelton Store Sites, by way of lease, has been conducted on very erratic principles. In 1871 the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company obtained a lease of the site of store B for twenty-one years, and were required to build a store over the whole site, but, after holding the site less than two years, after the completion of the building, the lease was terminated by the Provincial Government. Occupation of the store continued under various temporary tenures till October, 1879, and for one year after on a disputed tenure, when the company was finally ousted. The rent paid during the period for the site amounted to £4,483, the expenditure on buildings to £3,500, and the refund by the Government for the buildings amounted to £3,000, leaving a net balance of £4,983 as rent paid and capital sunk during that period in the hands of the Government. In contrast to this case Cunningham, and Co. obtained the site of store C in 1869, and were dispossessed in November, 1878, and gave as rent for the whole period £9, expended in buildings £3,750, and received from the Government in February, 1877, the sum of £3,750 as the value of buildings left on the site, leaving a net balance in the hands of the Government of £9. On the 3rd August, 1877, the Government offered five sites for stores on Norwich Quay for lease; these sites have a frontage on a street and also on a railway siding. Sites Nos. Ito 4 inclusive have a frontage of 107 feet each, and a depth of 60 feet from the street to the siding ; No. 5 had a frontage of 78 feet, and the same depth. The 107 feet frontages were put up at £250 a year, increasing by one-third each seven years, the lease being for twenty-one years certain, buildings to be paid for by the Government at the end of term; only one lot was sold, viz., No. 4 site, to Messrs. Talbot and McClatchie. Mr. Carruthers recommended that Government stores should be build on the remaining sites, but the Minister declined on the ground that the Government should not enter into storage business. Subsequently the terms of the lease of the remaining sites were altered, the upset price being reduced to £1 10s. per foot frontage, and the one-third increase each seven years abandoned. Cunningham and Co. on these new terms obtained on the 23rd August, 1878, Lots 1, 2, and 5, equal to 292 feet frontage, and subsequently obtained Lot 3, 107 feet, at £1 per foot. The company subsequently parted with the half of Lots 3, viz., 53|r feet to Talbot and McClatchie, and surrendered to the Government, Lot 5, viz., 78 feet frontage, on the condition that it was set aside as a sailors' home, retaining in their own possession 267-J- feet, at an average rental of £1 Bs. 4d. per foot. The whole of the frontages on Norwich Quay having a railway siding were thus disposed of. The purchasers of Lot 4, who bought at an average of £3 4s. per foot for twenty-one years, naturally objected to pajr, when they found equally good sites were let to others at from £1 to £110s. a foot, and on easier conditions. There objections were entertained as reasonable, and the Government reduced the rent to £1 10s. per foot. While the more valuable sites on Norwich Quay are let for a term of twenty-one years certain, at from £1 to £1 10s. per foot, the Government demand from the Loan Company, for the one year's occupation of the shed B in dispute, £1,200, which would be equal to £3 per foot, after allowing rent of building at 8 per cent, on the £3,000 paid by the Government. These are only a few instances of the uncertain way in which the various Governments dealt with these sites. There are three ways in which the Committee can deal with the petitioner's case : (1.) By recommending that the agreement entered into by Mr. Conyers and the representatives of the company, submitted to the Government in Mr. Conyer's letter of the 30th September, 1879, be given effect to, as it appears from the evidence of Mr. J. Macandrew, who was then Minister for Public Works, that he would have given effect to it had it been officially brought under his notice. (2.) That the Committee recommend that the company be granted a lease of store B, for a term ending in 1899, on similar conditions on which the Norwich Quay sites are let, with the exception of valuation for buildings at the end of the term, the rent to be assessed as follows—viz., in consideration of the site being of lesser value .^Jian the Norwich Quay sites, the rent be £1 ss. per foot frontage, and the addition of £180, being 6 per cent, on £3,000, the value of the buildings paid by the Government to the company, htfihg equal to a rent of £554 a year. (3.) If the Committee consider that the company is entitled to any allowance for excessive rent paid, arising out of the uncertain action of ' various Governments, and actual loss on dumping plant, and expenditure on Officer's Point, this would be represented by £200 a year to the end of the,term, 1899, and, if recommended by the Committee, would reduce the rent to £354 a year,

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