Gill FJ:

The appellant in this case is a rubber merchant and landed proprietor. Before the last war he acquired 7 lots of land at Sepang, which he sold in 1952. He bought 78 acres of land at Ulu Klang known as B Rubber Estate in 1949, which he sold in 1964. In 1951 he bought 187 acres of rubber land at Rawang, which he sold in 1960.

In or about December 1957, jointly with four other persons, he entered into an agreement for the purchase at a price of $197,837.60 of a rubber estate known as D Estate, two miles from Seremban town. They completed the purchase on 28 February 1958 and the land was registered as to one-half undivided share in the name of the appellant and as to one-eighth undivided share in the name of each of his four co- purchasers.

At the beginning of 1958 the co-purchasers of D Estate approached a firm of accountants with a view to forming a limited company to be known as the D Company Limited. On 19 September 1958 the manager of D Estate, one of the co-owners, wrote a letter to the District Officer, Seremban, informing him of a scheme to develop 16 acres of the land for the erection of 20 bungalows and to ask whether there would be any objection to the scheme.