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Enclosure E.
HONGKONG, 24th September, 1887.
Honourable C. P. CHATER,
DEAR SIR,
RECLAMATION PROJECT.
With reference to marine lot No. 7 which at present is divided between three houses, I assume that the Hongkong Hotel Company, Limited will receive their fair proportion of the new ground, both on first and second bits. I bring this to your notice as it appears to me, from the signed plan, as if the Hongkong Hotel Company. Limited. would not receive in proportion to their present water frontage.
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
D. McCULLOCH,
Chairman, Hongkong Hotel Company, Limited.
DEAR SIR,
Enclosure F.
HONGKONG AND CHINA GAS COMPANY, LIMITED,
WORKS, WEST POINT,
HONGKONG, 9th September, 1887.
PROPOSED RECLAMATION SCHEME.
In response to your invitation to marine lot-owners, to offer any objections, suggestions, or point out any other matter connected with the scheme and requiring development, I herewith beg to offer a few remarks as Agent for this Company; but at the same time do not bind myself or this Company to the opinions expressed, having in view the discussion of the scheme at a public meeting, and the probable modification of the views herein expressed.
It is impossible in a letter of this sort to bring before you all the reasons for the objections or suggestions I may make, but I do to some extent.
Cost.-As a first consideration we have to go into the cost.
In your letter of the 13th of July to the Colonial Secretary, you estimate the average cost of the reclaimed land as available for building purposes at $2 per square foot, and after reclamation the land will sell in no case for less than $4 per square foot, and in some cases from $12 to $15 per foot. Assuming that the average cost is $2 per square foot super. how is this to be paid, will each marine lot- owner have to pay $2 per square foot of the land he receives; if this is the intention, then I contend it is an injustice to those marine lot-owners extreme West of the Reclamation, for in the first place, the cost of reclamation in the Western District will be very much smaller than the cost in the Central District owing to the differ- ence in the depth of water, &c., in the second place, the land in the Central District being of such greater value than that in the West, it should pay a proportionately higher rate according to the sections marked on the Government Plan.
To apportion the cost relative to the depth of water, it would be necessary to have a complete and thorough survey and cost computed at so much per cubic foot, of the available land for building purposes.
To apportion the cost relative to the value of the reclaimed land it will be necessary to put an estimate value (derived from the latest transactions) on the land contained in the various sections, and the cost apportioned in proportion to the values so fixed.