10
REVIEW
small item essential to his product or a change in demand neces- sitated a change in production beyond the limits of the lease and, further, prices for differently restricted land varied artificially. As a consequence it became necessary to modify the leases of many of the lots subject to these restrictive user conditions. Today- other than in exceptional circumstances-industrial land is sold with the minimum of restriction on use; normally the lease merely requires the purchaser to use the land for general industrial pur- poses excluding offensive trades.
In post-war years there has been an extension of private treaty grants for community purposes to meet more directly the problems arising from a rapidly expanding community, particularly in the sphere of housing and education. There have been a large number of grants for non-profit making schools, for clinics, hospitals and other welfare purposes; the most recent grant of importance is that to the new Chinese University, involving some 250 acres in the New Territories. Land is also sold on concessionary terms to employers who undertake to house their staff, to the Housing Authority and Housing Society to provide housing for persons of small means, and to housing co-operatives organized by local civil servants. In addition, the public utility companies are able to obtain land by private treaty at full market value, if essential to their particular undertaking, and subject to an agreement not to dispose of such land, or any other land used for the undertaking, without the Government's approval in each particular case. Apart, however, from grants for these restricted purposes, public auction remains the basic method by which the Government transfers rights in land from the public to the private sector.
Length of lease
The period for which a Crown lease should be granted has been the subject of much argument over the last 120 years. The notifica- tion of the first land sales on 1st May 1841 referred to 'the tenure of quit rent to the Crown' but mentioned the possibility of acquir- ing the freehold ‘if that tenancy shall be offered by Her Majesty's Government'. In August 1843 the Governor received instructions from the Secretary of State directing him 'to abstain from alien- ating any of the land on the Island for any time of greater length than might be necessary to induce and enable the tenants to erect substantial buildings'. Grants already made were the subject of a