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determination of claims, these chi-tsai still remained in the owner's hands as the only visible sign of ownership, but they were easily lost and easily transferred. It was accord- ingly decided to issue to each land owner a "chap-chiu" or certified extract of his holdings, and from May, 1905, to September, 1996, Mr. Clementi was engaged in the issue of these to all holders in the Northern District; and incidentally he was enabled to make many necessary corrections and additions to the original Schedules attached to the Crown Leases. A similar work was done for the Southern District during the winter of 1910- 1911: the holders in New Kowloon were however not given chap chiu as their lands are usually well known to them, and reference to the Registers in Hongkong is for them a simple matter.
17. Land throughout the New Territories is now held on a lease from the Crown for 75 years from July 1st, 1898, subject to renewal for a further 24 years. By the New Territories Land Ordinance of 1903, which was merged in the New Territories Consolidation Ordinance of 1910, machinery for registering land transfers and settling disputes was provided, and care was taken to make all processes as simple as possible. The District Officers, who act in New Territory land matters as deputies for the Land Officer in Hong- kong, are given very wide powers in the appointment of trustees and in settlement of land disputes, and no lawyers are allowed to appear in land cases without their express per-
mission.
18. Crown Land is sold by auction at upset prices of one cent per square foot for build- ing land, and from to cent per square foot for agricultural land, with Crown rent on the scale before mentioned. Lots not exceeding 1,000 square feet may however be sold by private treaty in districts away from railways or main roads when competition is out of the question and agricultural land is often let by the Crown on annual or quinquennial leases without premium.
19. It is too much to expect that all mistakes should have been eliminated from the records of land tenure throughout the Territories, but the work of the Land Offices is now fairly straightforward, and the surviving errors are gradually brought to light. The chief of these are errors in the original survey; for instance, in the island of Cheung Chau the maps and the rent roll are so incorrect that nothing less than an entirely new survey will serve to set things right.
20. On the whole, the work of land settlement and the machinery provided for subse- quent land administration have been eminently successful, and the people have shown a growing readiness to make use of it. A minimum of legal formality and a maximum of simplicity and elasticity have tended to inspire confidence and to wean the land owners to our matter-of-fact. system. But, as has been stated, the closer relations of the New Ter- ritories with Hongkong have not tended to increase the demand for land, but rather to draw the people away from it; and the only visible results to the land are the better build- ings which improved means have enabled the villagers to erect thereon.
21. Under the same heading two important pieces of work must be mentioned :--
(1.) Taxlord compensation.
(2.) Land resumption for roads and railways.
(1.) The former is thus explained in Mr. Clementi's report on his work in the New Territories in 1905-6 :—in the recommendation of the Land Court, the Governor decided that 14 elders of the Northern District should be compensated for certain "taxlord" rights claimed by them to have existed before the Con- vention, but not compatible with the principles of British administration, by the grant of 252·33 acres of Crown Land in the Northera District, to be selected by each "taxlord" in proportion to the value of the right claimed by him.
The taxlords however continued to nurse their grievances, and were only induced with difficulty to choose the requisite amount of land: the complete settlement of the question was further delayed by the want of a surveyor to carry the work through, so that the Taxlord Schedules were not completed until August, 1909.
(2.) The execution of Public Works in the New Territories has from time to time necessitated the resumption of private lands. Chief of these have been the Taipo Road, and the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Compensation in New Kowloon has been from 1 cent to 3 cents per square oot for waste or agricultural lan and in the North District from cent to 1 cent according to the quality of the land