REVIEW
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precedent; it is not controlled by statute or codified by regulation but free to change to meet the needs of the times. Notwithstanding this flexibility, the principles adopted in the early years of the Colony have changed very little. Fundamentally the policy has been for the Government to allow private enterprise full rein, with minimum restriction, while retaining the long-term interest in land in the hands of the Crown; the only serious departure from this was the extension of 75 year leases to 999 years in 1848. Land from the earliest days has been of first importance in the life of the Colony and a source of great wealth and the policy has been to maintain a balance between the interest of the com- munity and that of the individual. __
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT
The total land area of the Colony is 398 square miles made up as follows:
(a) Hong Kong Island, including a number of small adjacent
islands; 29 square miles
(b) Kowloon and Stonecutters Island: 32 square miles (c) The New Territories, including the mainland north of
Kowloon and some 235 islands: 365 square miles.
The boundaries of these districts are defined in the Interpretation Ordinance. Of the total land area of 398 square miles some 320 square miles or roughly 80 per cent is waste, grassy or rocky precipitous hillside with an occasional area of scrub forest in the ravines and valleys; of the remainder roughly 55 square miles or 35,000 acres comprises agricultural land of one form or another, the balance of 25 square miles (16,000 acres) being largely urbanized. In this 25 square miles upwards of 3 million people live and work. In order that land may be developed to support this number of people and to allow for their increase in so small a compass, it is necessary that it be mapped, planned, levelled and provided with services. The techniques by which these proc- esses have been carried out and their degree of application, have, of necessity, become more elaborate from one decade to the next, and particularly so in the post-war years, in order to meet the demands of more varied, more concentrated and more sophisticated uses. But the principle remains the same it is to provide the
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