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of the Commissioners, which has already been published in the newspapers, but also to the minutes of evidence and the ap pendices, and to enable them to do so the Government should place the blue book on public sale. We take it there will be little difference of opinion as to the necessity of effecting sanitary improvements in the pro- perties indicated in the report, and perhaps not very much difference as to the details of the improvements required. The crucial point is the incidence of cost. Property owners would no doubt like to have their property purchased by the Government at outside prices, as in the case of the Taiping- shan resumption, whereas the Commissioners say, "No, let the property owners effect the
necessary improvements themselves."
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16
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看着
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
THE GOLF CLUB'S LEASE OF DEEP WATER BAY.
[May 14, 1898.
and support. When it comes to the use of public land, however, the Golf Club should, we think, be content to use the land in com- There have of late been various reports mon, and not seek to oust the public. A in circulation with reference to the lease lense of the land at Deep Water Bay was, of Deep Water Bay to The Royal Hong- we believe, applied for for industrial pur: kong Golf Club, some of them of a poses, or if not actually applied for, there very extraordinary character. The facts, can be no doubt it would have been. As a however, appear to be that our late Gover-manufacturing site it would have been one nor, Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON, himself an of the most valuable in the colony, having enthusiastic member of the Golf Club, did a large extent of level ground and a stream not think it wrong to take public land and which if properly daimed would afford a give it away to his friends. His action, constant water supply. Perhaps, however, no doubt, resulted from nothing more no objection will be taken to the Govern- serious than an amiable weakness. It is ment reserving the land as a recreation also an amiable weakness when the grocer's ground, but if so it ought to be a boy steals his master's raisins to give to his recreation ground for the whole community sweetheart, but the action is not one calcu- and not for any limited section exclusively. lated to meet with the approval of the boy's To give public land to private and exclusive master or of the law. Having determined to
clubs appears to us simple dishonesty. give this public land to his friends, Sir When the late Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL WILLIAM apparently considered that granted facilities for the establishment the most convenient form of gift would of a swimming bath (which was after- be a seventy-five years' lease, to be granted wards merged in the Victoria Recreation for a nominal consideration. It was dis- Club) he said, speaking at the opening covered, however, that the lease could ceremony: "I would, however, remind only be granted subject to the approval of
the Committee that in giving the site, and the Secretary of State, and when the papers
entrusting its management to them, I went home the Secretary of State very pro-
have made them trustees for no individual perly declined to give his approval to such
interests, but rather for the general a grant, but he unfortunately authorised the
public, and I therefore hope that, so far granting of a lease to the Golf Club as ten-
as subsequent experience, and the state of ants at will and subject to certain reserva-
"their funds may permit, they will take a tions as to non-interference with the cable
liberal view of their duties and render house or the use of the land by the military
"the establishment as widely beneficial as when it is required. As tenants at will,
possible." That is the only condition on however, the Club has, during the continuance which the Government can, consistently of the tenancy, as much right to warn the with honesty, hand over the management public off as it would have if it possessed
of public property to clubs or other full proprietary rights. The question is institutions. The Swimming Club and its whether the public will consent to be warned off or will endeavour to move the Government to reserve the land for public
use?
The issue thus raised is one to be fairly faced on both sides and considered, without prejudice. The Hon. F. A. COOPER and Dr. FRANCIS W. CLARK, in a joint report to the Commissioners, say "It has been urged that such buildings were erected with the approval of the Surveyor-General, but "there is not and never was any provision in "the Building Ordinances requiring the Surveyor-General'sapproval of the plans of proposed buildings, and indeed it was not until 1889 that the depositing of such plans was made compulsory; his action was consequently limited to interference only in the event of the provisions of the "Ordinance being contravened." This is sufficient to clear the Surveyor-General of all personal responsibility, but it does not touch the question of the Government's res- ponsibility, which is the point at issue. The contention of the property owners is, as we understand, that the Government by its non-interference has sanctioned the class of houses now existing, that if it had wished to prevent the erection of such houses it could have passed the legislation necessary for the purpose, and that not having done so it is fixed with moral if not legal responsibility. Aud certainly the Government is fixed with a large share of moral responsibility, but to the community in general, afflicted with the plague and its consequent injury to business, and not to the property owners in particular who have grown fat on the Government's unfortunate neglect. If property owners Her Majesty's Jubilee was made many who have elected in their own discretion to put supported the proposal and subscribed to up buildings of a manifestly insanitary char- it were influenced to some extent by the acter we can see no reason upon earth idea that the road would render Deep Water why their fellow ratepayers should be called Bay more accessible. Visions were enter- upon to pay the cost of remedying their tained of the establishment of a mistake. The Government has as much Brighton" there, to which the jaded citizen right to prevent the letting of insanitary could drive or bicycle after office hours, property as it has to prevent the sale of where he might find "refreshment for man unwholesome food. We trust the Govern- and beast," and where he might if he so ment will not fail to exercise that right wished enjoy a bathe or other forms of not oppressively, but so far as may be un-recreation or exercise. But all these mistakably necessary for the public welfare. There will be cases of hardship no doubt, cases of persons who have bought property at a price calculated simply on the basis of the rental, without regard to its sanitary condition or the use to which it is applied. But property has its responsibilities as well as its privileges and one of the first of those responsibilities is the observance of sanitary laws--not the laws of the statute book merely,
but the laws of nature and common sense. The mere fact that an investment has not turned out so well as the investor expected, owing to the cost of necessary but unfore seen improvements, cannot in itself q regarded as establishing any claim upon the Government for compensation.
We (N. C. Daily News) hear that the Nippon Yusen Kaisha have bought a piece of land with river frontage at Woosung near the Lighthouse at Tls. 3,000 per mow for wharves.
Deep Water Bay has always been a favourite picnicking ground, and especially so since the use of steam launches rendered it more readily accessible. The making of the Diamond Jubilee Road will, if the ground is again made available, still further increase its popularity. In fact when the proposal for the construction of a road
round the island as a suitable memorial of
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Little
privileges, or the major portion of them, are to be reserved, it seems, for the members of the Golf Club. A non-member of the Club may go past the Bay by the proposed road, all the level land taken away, is there any but he must not walk on the grass, nor, with prospect of the establishment of hotels where he might obtain refreshment. Without a half way house the road will be rendered comparatively useless to the general public. What it comes to therefore is that the general public has been induced to sub- scribe for the construction of a road for the benefit of the members of the Golf Club, under the impression that they were sub- scribing to a work of public utility.
Let it not be supposed that we write in any spirit of hostility to the Golf Club. Like all other Clubs formed for purposes of physical recreation or the cultivation of legitimate sport it merits all reasonable encouragement'
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successor the Victoria Recreation Club for
many years acted up to the spirit and letter of Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL'S expecta- tions, greatly to the advantage of the Club and the public; but of late years the spirit of exclusivism has set in even there, and if the Club's application for a new site is ac- ceded to by the Government we trust it will only be on condition that it reverts to its old rules as regards admission.
their own
This question of allowing small sections of the community to appropriate to exclusive use privileges that ought to be open to all on equal terms has been discussed in this column for many years past as occasion arose. It is with regret that we have to refer to it again, for
we are aware that it is one the discussion of which is calculated to give rise to ill feel-
ing in some quarters, but the public interest been our intention to reserve our remarks seems to call for plain speaking. It had
until the arrival of Sir HENRY BLAKE, but certain recent occurrences indicate that if the public rights at Deep Water Bay are to be protected there ought to be no loss of time in moving in the matter.
THE PACIFIC CABLE SCHEME.
It is now some time since anything was heard of the scheme for uniting America with the great island-continent of Australia in tele- graphic bonds, by laying a cable from Van- couver, B.C., to some point in Australia. The open letter addressed by Sir SANDFORD FLEMING to the Right Hon. Sir WILFRID LAURIER, Premier of the Dominion, and published in the Electrical Review in Feb. last, is proof, however, that though the ques tion has been complicated by the new pro- position submitted by the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, the scheme is not abandoned. That proposition was to lay a- new cable via the Cape, St. Helena, Ascen- sion Island, Sierra Leone or Bathurst, and