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Your Petitioners respectfully submit that by the provisions of the Bill read a first time on the 20th June and entitled "The Piers Ordinance, 1899," they will, contrary to the rights, powers, and privileges conferred upon and secured to them and their assigns by the said Ordinances 18 and 19 of 1884, be made subject to the payment of rent calculated upon a scale far in excess of any rent now paid for any Marine Lot let under lease from the Crown for 999 years. They will be deprived of the exclusive use of the Wharves and Piers constructed by them at an immense expense for the special purposes of their business in reliance upon the provisions of the said Ordinances and of the good faith of the Government of Hongkong. They will be prevented from increasing the number of, or in any way adding to, or altering, their said Wharves and Piers. They will be deprived of their right to cover in their said Wharves and Piers if the necessities of their busi- ness should render it expedient for them so to do, and of their power and privilege to make Rules and Regulations for the maintenance and use of their said Wharves and Piers. They will be extremely hampered in the conduct of their business as Wharfingers and Godown Keepers by the proposed regulations in the said Bill contained by which access by water to their Wharves and Piers is or may be restricted and by the prohibitious therein contained as to storing or keeping materials thereon.
They will, lastly, be deprived of their right to mortgage, sell, assign, or demise their said Wharves and Piers as the requirements of their said business may render advisable or necessary.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray
That they may be heard by their Counsel against the said Bill upon its second reading or at such other time as Your Honourable Council may think fit to hear them.
And Your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray, &c., &c.,
J. J. KESWICK,
Chairman of the Board of Directors,
C. P. CHATER,
Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Seal of
the Co.
EDWARD OSBORNE, Secretary of the Company.
HONGKONG, 24th June, 1899.
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