654
A-Yes; on the contrary your clients derived great benefit from the Reclamation.
Q---You made your Report in March, 1896, as to the silting up?
A-I made two; one in 1896 and the other in 1898.
Q-You saw it during the whole of these years?
A-I went down to view the locality at nearly every low Spring tide.
Q-You consider the Reclamation was a great benefit to Mr. Howard?
A-Yes.
Q-It was always a benefit right up to 1899 ?
A-Yes; it was a great benefit.
Q―Did you see Mr, Leigh's Report in 1895 ?
A-No.
Q-You say the value of the property in 1895 was about $3 per square foot?
A-Yes; about $3 per square foot.
Q-And you say that an Inland Lot, which was worth $3 per foot as a Marine Lot in 1895, would be of the same value as a Marine Lot in 1898 ?
A-Yes; under the conditions.
Q--I mean that if we had been on the sea front in 1899, would the land have only been worth $3 per foot?
A-I should put it down at about that value.
Q-What difference do you generally estimate in that district between a Marine Lot and an Inland Lot?
A-I cannot say.
Q-You know a great deal about the value of land in Hongkong?
A-Yes.
Q-And is it not generally admitted that land on the sea front, such as this [pointing to Lot 95 on the Plan] is worth more than the land at the back?
A-Of course it is.
Q-How much?
A-It is worth double.
Q-I may assume then that land at the front is worth double the land at the back ?
A-Yes.
Q- You say that 284 is worth double the value of 184 after the Reclamation?
A-Yes.
Q-Now, were there many more Godowns built in that neighbourhood in 1895?
A-Yes.
Q-But most of these Godowns were built on the Reclaimed Praya ?