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to the landlord at the end of the 1st moon in the following year
In the case of vegetable land the same land officer stated that the tenancy is normally given up at the end of the second moon.
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Rent for paddy land is paid in cash or in “kuk” either once a year or after each rice harvest. Rent for vegetable land is usually paid in cash. The customary right of the tenant to request the landlord to reduce the rent in time of a poor harvest, which has already been mentioned, still exists but the request must be made before the crop is actually harvested so that the landlord may examine the crop himself.'
In the appeal case cited above, Williams, Acting C. J. also decided that the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance applied generally to the New Territories other than in New Kowloon. 17 Obiter the learned Chief Justice opined that the Ordinance did not apply to agricultural land wherever situate in the Colony
To complete this review of the Chinese customary law of land in the New Territories we must enter the realm of geomancy The most concise statement of the belief in “fung shui” is also one of the earliest:-
THE
The general religious beliefs as to the relations of the spirits with the land are embraced under the name "Fung shui",
meaning "wind and water”— the two great moving elements in nature. The whole earth, with all that grows out of it, is full of spirits good and bad, which have their own prejudices about the use and occupation of their haunts, and require proper attention from the human beings in their neighbourhood; so it clearly behoves any one intending to build a house or a grave, a road or a railway, to ascertain on the best authority what site or direction he should chose In its origins, fung shui can undoubtedly claim to be based on feelings and ideas natural to human nature, and there is much wisdom in it, which even our modern science cannot entirely ignore. Thus "fung shui" forbids the overlooking of other houses or places, and the setting of one grave just above another: for such an action would show a spirit of arrogance and presumption. It sets great store by wild trees, which are for this reason carefully preserved and even worshipped near the villages; and certain large or ancient trees are objects of special veneration.
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