D 26.
607
D.
Extract from the Hongkong Government Gazette of 7th March, 1857.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
Bowring Praya.
The instructions of Her Majesty's Government have been received as to the mode in which compensation (if any) shall be given for Damage,-and the Rents. settled for Lands not comprehended in the original Leases. They are to the following effect :---
"There is no doubt that Land recovered from the sea, whether artificially
or naturally, belongs to the Crown and that the Crown is at liberty to dispose of it in the same manner as of any other land in the Colony. But it is also clear that the acquisition of such land by any other person than the owner of the Marine Lot behind it, would very much diminish the value of the Marine Lot, and in many cases render it useless for the purpose for which it was acquired. While therefore, the rights of the Crown and the interests of the public require that the claim of the Crown to such lands should be firmly maintained, a sense of justice requires that the equitable claim of the holders of the original Marine Lots should be liberally considered."
"The most practicable way of reconciling these interests, would be to appoint assessors on the part of the Crown and the proprietor of the Marine Lot, or, if it be preferred a jury, to assess the damage done to the original Marine Lot by the creation of a new Marine Lot in front of it. To put up the new Marine Lot to Auction, and to allow the proprietor of the original lot to acquire it at the highest price which may be bid for it, less the sum assessed as the damage done to the original lot. If, however, he should refuse to become the purchaser, then to pay to him out of the price of the new lot the sum assessed as damage.'
CC
17
Some such arrangement would meet the justice of the case. It would of course require modification to meet the peculiar circumstances of individual cases, e.g., when the whole new land is not put up in a single lot. It would also be necessary to provide, that in no case should more be claimable as assessed damages than the amount realised by the sale of the new lot. But points of detail like these can best be settled by the local authorities on the spot. It is sufficient to indicate the general principle on which such cases may be dealt with."
By order,
(Sd.). W. T. BRIDGES,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office,
Victoria, Hongkong, 3rd March, 1857.
D 27.
HOWARD versus THE CROWN.
ROBERT KENNEWAY LEIGH,
Civil Engineer,
Member Institute Civil Engineers.
Over 16 years as Engineer in the Colony of Hongkong.
First three years in the Surveyor General's Department assisted in conducting experiments to decide tidal currents in the harbour for sewer outfalls.
Result of these experiments with diagrams given in "Chadwick's Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hongkong ", Colonial Office, November, 1882.
Know the site well, and took measurements and soundings on the 27th April last.
Plan No. 1.
Is traced from a Survey in the Surveyor General's Department and shows the site as it was just prior to the filling in of the slipway in 1879 with the Praya Extension as built added on in red lines and the position of the sections shown on.