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life would not be threatened by the change from a Manchu
to a British overlord. The Colony's administrators at
that time probably foresaw the need for "public offices
and fortifications" but not much else. Certainly they
could not have foreseen anything like the pressures for
development both by the Government and private owners that
were subsequently to arise. It is for these reasons that
the Convention, the 3lock Crown Lease, and the assurances
given to the people are not helpful, to say the least, in
settling questions arising from the acquisition of private
land on a prodigous scale necessary before implementation
of the present development programmes in the New Territories
can take place.
6.
Powers for the resumption of leased land are
prescribed in the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance. The
Ordinance has provided and continues to provide an
adequate means of resuming and compensating for building
land in Hong Kong and Kowloon. However, the Ordinance on
its own, and in its present form, does not provide a means
of peaceful and speedy resumption of rural land in either
New Kowloon or the New Territories. As a result, other
methods of acquiring land in these areas were devised.
Thus in 1962, in recognition of this weakness
of the Crown Lands Resumption Crdinance in providing for
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