“Such are the terms on which land is held at this settlement, and which we declare to be prohibitions to an extended cultivation and the general improvement of the island. In the first place, with regard to land beyond the limits of the town, the rent, even on the first lease, cannot be considered moderate, at a dollar an acre, as the leaseholder must necessarily incur considerable expense, at the commencement, in clearing the land, which, for the most part, is overgrown with jungle and forest. To repay himself for this expenditure, and to render the speculation worthy of his time and attention, the ground must be made to yield productions calculated to realize some profit. Those most likely to do so, on this island, (from its hilly nature,) are spices, and certain descriptions of fruit. But many years must elapse before the trees will bear, during which the leaseholder is involved in a necessary and unavoidable expense, which his undertaking may finally be unable to repay. “The case may not be so applicable to lands suitable for the cultivation of grain or vegetables, which are speedily raised, and require but small outlay, yet even these could not, from their cheapness, realize a profit whenever the land should become chargeable with a rent of ten dollars an acre. “The periodical leases, renewable after fifteen years, seem to be considered by most as of little value; they afford no security for fixed property in the soil, as a grant on one of these leases is liable to be resumed by government, ‘with all buildings thereon,’ should the leaseholder or his heirs not choose to comply with the terms of the new lease. A permanent lease, on the contrary, establishes the property in the leaseholder’s family, and he is induced, through a certainty of security for the future, to invest and risk more means in endeavouring to render his land productive, than he could prudently do, when the lease is only periodical. But the excessive rate of the present rent acts as a formidable prohibition to many, who would, were the rent reduced, be well disposed to invest property in agricultural speculations on this island.