Lord Denning:

The judgment of the Board was delivered by,-

This is an action brought by a father against his son. It concerns a piece of land in the Mukim of Si Rusa in the State of Negri Sembilan. It is 40 acres two roods and 30 poles in extent: and it is cultivated with rubber. The land is registered in the name of the son but the father claims that the son holds it as trustee for him. It is hereinafter called the "40 acres".

The father bought these 40 acres as long ago as 1934. He bought them at a public auction for $8,081. But he already owned 99 acres of rubber land. So that if his two holdings were added together his total holding would be 139 acres. This was undesirable from his point of view because of the Rubber Regulations (No 17 1934). These regulations were passed so as to control the production of rubber. They drew a distinction between holdings of less than 100 acres and holdings of more than 100 acres. If a man held more than 100 acres, the permissible production was assessed by an Assessment Committee.

If he held less than 100 acres, it was assessed by the local District Officer. In order to avoid these regulations, the father decided to put the 40 acres