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4. The enlistment and training however of the Demarcation Staff required time and meanwhile it seemed advisable to commence getting in claims as rapidly as possible leaving where necessary the identification of the land claimed to be completed when the lot number tickets had all been issued. This bas caused a good deal of delay; for persons who have first laid a claim in the Court, and subse- quently received a lot number ticket on demarcation usually imagine that nothing further is necessary so that it has often proved very difficult to get them to come to the office and produce their tickets. I have arranged that in future demarcation shall have a clear start in each district before the receiv- ing of claims begins and that no claim shall be received unless the appropriate lot number ticket is produced at the same time.
Commencement at Kowloon City.
5. The Law Committee of the Legislative Council had recommended that if possible the land facing Hongkong aud lying to the south of the Kowloon watershed should be first dealt with on account of its growing importance as an outlet for the expansion of the Colony and of its far greater superficial value relative to the rest of the New Territory. I therefore decided to make Kowloon City the first base of operations and by the courtesy of the Trustees I obtained as an office the building used before the Convention as a general Meeting House and Sehool-room within the Walled City.
The area including Kowloon City and extending to the Lyeemuu Pass was well adapted to be taken as a test of the work that would have to be done coutaining as it did (a) padi and vegetable land, (6) house and shop property, and (c) fishing grounds and foreshore. Furthermore it was rea- sonable to suppose that its proximity to Hongkong would reuder the people more amenable to Western methods and better able to understand the meaning of what they were required to do than might have been the case with villagers in more remote districts.
General Procedure.
6. I think it may be expedient to sketch generally at the outset the procedure I have adopted so as not to render necessary further explanation upon particular points relating to the work of the Land Court.
The initial step is to select and mark out the boundaries of a District and a notification from His Excellency in the Gazette then fixes a date after which no claims in respect of that district will be received by the Court. Notices are published directing claimants to attend the Court where the proper forms are filled in for them by the clerical staff. A demarcation party is sent out and persons are invited to attend and give particulars of ownership pointing out their land, the outlines of which are then put in on the Cadastral Map with an appropriate lot number.
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7. Finally if we suppose that the last day for receiving claims in X District" is the 31st July, on the 1st August the Court will be in possession of the following documents :-
(a.) Cadastral maps showing the exact position of every claim.
(b.) A statement prepared by the Survey Department giving the areas of every claim in
acres to two decimal points.
(c.) The claim forms signed by the claimants themselves.
(d.) The demarcation books giving particulars as to ownership, nature of cultivation, etc.
collected on the ground.
The first step is then to send the Cadastral maps to the Public Works Department. Under section 15 of the Ordinance all persons in occupation of land as to which claims have not been presented by the last day fixed by His Excelleney are trespassers against the Crown. The land claimed should be marked off by boundary stones from the unclaimed, the latter being thenceforward the property of the Crown.
8. The undisputed claims must then be separated from those which are contested. The latter can be easily picked out for where the same lot number is found on more than one claim the owner- ship of the land to which that number relates is obviously contested, while conversely where there is only one claim to a lot, the ownership of that lot is not in dispute.
By far the major portion of the land either under cultivation or covered by buildings is held by persons whose claims to the ownership is not disputed. The average areas of individual holdings are so small and their value to the possessor so great that it is not remarkable that the ownership is as a rule perfectly well known and uncontested, especially seeing that much cultivated land bears three crops a year and is consequently hardly ever left fallow. I estimate that omitting Sham Shui Po which bristles with difficulties, and perhaps the strip of coast from Ngau Tau Kok to Lyeemun the percentage of disputed claims will not be more than about 5%.
9. The disputed claims having been put on one side those which are undisputed must be care- fully sifted to ascertain whether there is any effective occupation. Where the land is and has been for any considerable time under cultivation or where there are inhabited buildings on the land, I take it the Government will as a general rule confirm the occupiers in their possession, even though they have no real title whatever. But where the land is unoccupied and consists of foreshore or waste bill land the title will need careful scrutiny. Taking as general the axiom that the Chinese Government recognized no ownership not authorized by a registered instrument it is unlikely that many persons would have been at the expense of paying taxes and registration fees for land which under Chinese rule was practically valueless. Many persons on the other hand, now that there is a ready market for such land will be anxious to assert rights of ownership which they never possessed or which have long lapsed to the Crown in consequence of the abandonment of the land.
In other cases also exclusive rights of fishery or of wood and grass cutting may have been granted to individuals who are now anxions to claim full ownership of the land over which they exercised these rights. These are the cases which present questions really difficult of solution, many of which may not be satisfactorily settled for some years to come.
As
10. It will be seen from what I have said in the foregoing paragraphs that until a good deal of work has been done on the land the judicial functions of the Court do not begin to be exercised. soon as the last day for receiving claims is past all the land in a District that has not been claimed should be marked off as Crown Land.