G.F. 323
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were made in the form of #31ock" Crown Leases; in effect,
large, bound volumes with a copy of the lease in each,
followed by "block" lists of lots, owners, and uses. The
lessees did not execute these leases of their land nor were
they issued with a copy of it (it was entirely in English).
So far as both parties are concerned, the Crown and the
lessee, perhaps the most important covenant contained in the
lease is that the Lessee shall not convert any land
"expressed to be demised" as agricultural or garden ground
for building without the licence of the Crown.
4.
From time to time, in the nineteen twenties
and thirties, the right of the Government to charge a
premium or enhanced Crown Rent for the granting of a
licence to New Territories landowners to build village
houses was contested; in New Kowloon resumption in order to
develop land north of Boundary Street was also challenged
as being contrary to the Convention.
5.
The documents written and statements made when
the New Territories were leased were conceived in a situation
when the Hong Kong authorities were at some pains to justify
their need for the acquisition of the New Territories and
to re-assure the inhabitants of the settled, and primarily
peasant community, that, so far as possible, their way of
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