T. Kulasekaram J:

By an indenture dated 8 November 1882 Mdm Tan Geok Hup conveyed all her interests in certain lands of extent over 115 acres and more particularly described in the Schedule thereto, hereinafter referred to as the said lands, to trustees and their heirs and assigns and successors in office forever to be held by them upon trusts the primary one of them being for the use of the said lands as a burial ground for all persons bearing the surname or clan name 'Yeo' and who are of the Hokkien tribe.

This deed also provided in some detail how the trustees were to carry out these trusts and use it as a burial ground and how new trustees were to be appointed as replacements as and when the need for such appointments arose. It further provided that the trustees or their successors in office should not sell, mortgage or demise any part or parts of the said premises or otherwise incumber the same.

By diverse deeds of appointment or by orders of Court new trustees had been appointed from time to time in place of earlier trustees and from September 1931 the trustees were Yeo Kiat Seng, the original first defendant in this suit, and Chua Chwee Lim.

In October 1934 a port