Lord Wilberforce (delivering the judgement of the Board):

This is an appeal from an order of the Federal Court of Malaysia which reduced the amount awarded to the appellant by the High Court of Borneo as compensation for the resumption of certain lands in Sarawak.

On 1 April 1960, which is the relevant date for assessing the value of the lands, the appellant was the registered proprietor under long leases of two parcels of land in the area of Kuching, in Sarawak. These are numbered KOT 16178 and KOT 16179 and are respectively 2572 acres and 1782 acres in extent. These lots are situated four miles from Kuching, a town, at the material time, having a population of some 50,000 inhabitants: they had been brought within the municipality of Kuching on 1 January 1960. Apart from some minor improvements on Lots 16178 they were undeveloped and without water or electricity: they were within a mixed zone area and so could be held by nonindigenous proprietors.

As regards their physical characteristics it is relevant to state that they both had extensive frontages to the Pending road, one lying on the north and the other on the south. They were both somewhat low-lying, and so, in certain possible events, exposed to the risk of flooding. Lot 16178 is, except for about one acre, below the ten foot contour line: Lot 16179 is as to above one- half of its area below that line. To be above normal flood level it has been assumed that it is necessary to be at least nine feet in height, and one of the factors affecting value is the cost of filing the land up to that height. Lot 16179 has upon it two grave plots affecting 1.1 acres. An area of O. 16 acre is similarly affected on Lot 16178.

The lands were required by the Government in connection with the projected new port of Kuching. It is common ground that its intended development was generally known from 1958 onwards when the Government built a new wharf at Tanah Puteh, a short distance to the west of the lands.

The owners in the first instance claimed compensation at the rate of $30,000 per acre. There was an enquiry before the Superintendent of Lands and Surveys, and on 16 March 1963 he made an award of $237,760 which represents about $5,500 per acre. The owners then applied to the High Court, claiming that the award was insufficient. In December 1964 the Government made an increased offer of $307,778, which represents about $7,000 per acre, but this was refused by the owners, and the case went to trial. The hearing in the High Court before Harley J. and two assessors, took place in Kuching in March 1965. The case for the appellant was substantially based upon the evidence of Mr. JM Carter, a qualified valuer who practised in Singapore and who had been instructed to inspect the lands and value them in April 1963. His first aggregate figure was $698,000 for the two lots, but during the hearing he revised this to $607,000 to take account of the higher cost of filling the lots to a level of nine feet. He reached this figure by first arriving at a starting, or basic, figure of $15,500 per acre and then making adjustments in accordance with the individual characteristics of the two Lots. These produced figures, for Lot 16178 of $306,000 ($11,900 per acre) and for Lot 16179 of $301,000 ($16,900) per acre.

The superintendent called Mr. Ambrose Foo, a valuer in the Land and Survey Department, and an engineer.

After the evidence had been completed and Counsel had addressed the Court, the learned Judge, in a lengthy, careful, and fair summing up, stated the effect of the evidence to the assessors.

On the following day, they gave a joint opinion in the following term:

From the evidence, we the undersigned assessors re of the opinion that the amended claim figure of ;607,000 in p. 15 of the report of Mr. JM Carter is a fair one, particularly so when the overall price per acre is $13,900."

The learned Judge thereupon gave a brief judgment in which, after stating that the figure reached by