LAND AND HOUSING
157
On 28th February 1958 the conclusion of an agreement between the Hong Kong Government and the War Office was announced, providing for the surrender of the Murray Barracks, Murray Parade Ground and the Detention Barracks on Hong Kong Island, as well as certain areas in Sham Shui Po Camp in Kowloon. In return the Government undertook to provide buildings to the value of $17,200,000, to waive arrears of rent due for Sham Shui Po Camp and to agree to free occupation by the Army of the remain- der of the camp for as long as it was required.
The surrender of these areas, which have been the subject of negotiations for a considerable number of years, will release for development some ten acres of valuable and badly needed land. Perhaps most important, it will permit the replanning of one of the busiest intersections in the Colony's road network at the foot of Garden Road.
Another important development concerning land and property occupied by the Army occurred on 11th December when the Government announced that it had agreed to provide a formed site for a new Services hospital to be built by the War Department in the King's Park area of Kowloon. This arrangement had been made as the only practical way of securing the early release of La Salle College, requisitioned since 1949 for use as a military hospital. It is hoped that the College can be vacated by the summer of 1959 when temporary arrangements have been made by the Services to provide for all their hospital requirements. On completion of the new Services hospital, the Bowen Road site of the present Military Hospital on the Island will revert to the Hong Kong Government.
Survey. During the first few post-war years survey was a matter of expediency; old survey plans and records had to be tracked down, war damaged areas had to be rebuilt, boundaries of lots redefined, and plans prepared for new engineering projects and installations. The Survey Office concentrated on re-establishing property boundaries, making purely local surveys not tied into the Colony Grid; for all other work, surveys were made upon an assumed datum.