CONFIDENTIAL
esumed outside development areas, the Government's cash offer would reflect the market value of the land taking into account the extent to which Government policies permit use which is not in accordance with the terms of the lease of the land. Within development areas, the 5:2 exchange system (with which you are very familiar) is offered as an alternative to cash compensation.
8.
The Government is aware of your dissatisfaction with some aspects of the exchange system, particularly at a time when land values are falling and insufficient land is immediately available for exchange. The Secretary for the New Territories has been discussing with you the possibility of introducing a revised compensation system as an alternative to the present system of exchange.
9.
Your argument (in paragraph 3(4) (d) of your petition) that it is more costly for an applicant to acquire land by exchange than at a public auction has been taken into account in recommendations which the Secretary for the New Territories has submitted to the Government.
10.
The Secretary for the New Territories has recently assessed the total area of agricultural land for which offers of exchange have been made and the total area of land available to be granted in edchange as building land. He hopes, by adopting a more systematic approach, to develop a workable land exchange programme.
11.
Where it is necessary to remove villages to make way for reservoirs or other large-scale development, new homes have been provided for the families affected and compensation has been paid towards removal and decoration expenses and the loss of graves, trees, crops and other property. District Officers and the Secretary for the New Territories will continue, as in the past, to discuss these questions in detail with local representatives in an effort to ensure that reasonab le claims are dealt with quickly and sympathetically.
12.
It is not accurate to state that most applications by villagers for permission to build living accommodation are rejected. Over 2200 such applications were approved between the introduction of the new rules in December 1972, and the 31st December 1974.
13.
In your petition, you assert that the three districts of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories are geographically and politically one and indivisible. This is indisputable. It is therefore difficult to see the advantages of your proposal that a separate New Territories Administrative Council should be set up, with its own finance, security, social welfare and other branches, responsible directly to the Governor. As development proceeds in the New Territories, it would become increasingly impracticable to administer the area separately from the rest of Hong Kong. It would moreover be wasteful of our scarce resources to gragment the Government and the administration of Hong Kong in this way.
14.
You complain that none of the unofficial members of the Legislative Council represents the New Territories: for the reasons given previously, membership of the Council is not based upon geographical divisions. However the Secretary for the
/New Territories..
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