332
THE LENGTH OF CROWN LEASES Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Hongkong, 22nd September, 1898. Sir, It having come to the knowledge of the Committee of the Chamber that the Govern ment, acting under instructions from the Secretary of State for the Colonies have re- daced the period for which the leases of Crown lands are granted, viz., from 999 years to 75 or 99 years at the utmost, they respectfully beg to lay their views on this important subject before His Excellency. the Officer Administer ing the Government.
The Crown leases in the city of Victoria and its suburbs were originally granted for 75 years only but this short term not proving satisfactory, in March, 1849, upon the recom- mendation of a Committee of the House of Commons an extension of 924 years was granted to the holders of then existing leases and the term fixed at 999 years for the future, which was adhered to without exception until within the last two months. Several lots on the re- sumed area in Taipingshan were then sold a lease of 75 years, but the premium demanded had to be reduced to half the amount which could have been obtained had a longer period been granted.
on
In Kowloon the Crown leases have with some few exceptions, viz., two or three inland lots, the Marine lots at Tsim tsa-shui, and the property held by the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Co-all of which are on a tenure of 999 years-been made for a term of 75 years, and the same term was given to the Rural Building Lots in the Hill District. The owners of all these lots, however, were allowed to believe that the question of the future extension of the lease to a parity with those held within the city of Victoria would be considered, and 'that, in no case, would resumption follow on conclusion of the term. In this faith too, mortgages have been effected which-otherwise could not have safely been concluded.
[October 22 1898.
The following are the enclosures alluded to A.—Copy of letter addressed to the Chamber by Messrs. Cawasjee, Pallanjee & Co, dated 10th October.
B-Packets of musters shewing the manner in which the lost correspondence was done up and addressed.
C-Copy of latter addressed to the Chamber by Messrs. Gibb, Livingston & Co. dated 10th October,
R.C.W. To Hon. T. Sercombe Smith, Acting Colonial
Secretary.
are annually sent from Canton to be invested here. The Chinese regard the 999 years' lesse as practically freehold and hence feel a confid- ence in the security that they repose in no other investment. It would surely be most undesir able to disturb that confidence or to stay that influx of capital into a colony where, owing to the instability of exchange, this medium is so painfully restricted..
5.-Under this new system, rents which are already very high and press hardly on a large section of the community, will inevitably be largely increased, and the pressure will be felt the more severely by landowners, coming as it will immediately after the heavy outlays recently
Hongkong, 10th October, 1898. entailed on sanitary improvements. What is of R. Chatterton Wilcox, Esq, Secretary, The even greater importance, however, is the check Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce. it will infallibly impose on the outgrowth of Sir, We shall be much obliged if you will the city.
kindly lay before the Committee of the Cham- 6. That check will extend more or less ber the following facts with regard to corres- through the whole fabric of the colony's propondence posted by us here for transmission to sperity, and will speedily make itself felt on the Bombay and Shanghai, which has never reached revenue. In attempting thus to provide for its destinations, in the hope that your Commit- the benefit of posterity, shall we not be risking tee will make such representations to His Ex- the growth of the legacy it is designed to be cellency the officer. administering the Gov. queath?
ernment as may induce him to appoint a com mission to enquire into the working and manage- ment of the General Post Office, with the view of ascertaining whether sufficient care and European supervision is exercised over pondence after it has been received into the Post Office so as to prevent the abstraction of covers by employés in the Post Office.
:
Trusting that His Excellency the officer administering the Government will without loss of time be so good as to make known the views of the Chamber on this momentous ques- tion to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies.-I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
R. CHATTERTON WILCOX,
Secretary.
To Hon. T. Sercombe Smith, Acting Colonial
Secretary.
که
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 10th October, 1898. Sir, I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd ultimo, re- lative to the reduction of the term of years for which Crown leases are granted, and to inform you that a copy of it was sent to Downing Street by the French mail of the 8th instant.- I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
T. SERCOMBE SMITH, Acting Colonial Secretary.
We may mention that in each of the under- mentioned cases the stamps on the covers con- taining the correspondence, which in sach case was a large one, amounted to between $1 and $3. In the following table the date of the posting of each fost cover is given with the name of the addressee and the steamer by.which it should have gone forward.
We may say that in each base the stamps were affixed to each of the missing letters in our office and each letter was then placed in a wooden box, which was also securely sealed up in our office, together with a chit boot, then handed to a native messenger in bar employ. ment, who was directed to carry the box to the Post Office, and who subsequently returned to our office with empty box and the chit book stamped with the seal of the General Post Office.
:
The Committee feel profound regret that so radical a measure affecting the tenure of land should have actually been put into operation without consulting any opinion in this co- lony, and they deplore the tendency at the Colonial Office to endeavour to apply legislation to distant dependencies The Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, y of the Crown without sufficient regard being had to the local circumstances. In the present
THE POST OFFICE. ..
Our chit books are open for inspection and case the change so unceremoniously introduced
we will hand them to you for that purpose if cannot fail to have farreaching consequences;
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
requested to do so. Hongkong, 13th October, 1898. and in its working will assuredly act disas- Sir, It is with great regret that the Com- trously on the future well-being of the colony.mittee of this Chamber feel compelled again to In protesting against the change, the Commit-request you to invite the attention of His Ex- tee wish to point out:-
cellency the Officer Administering the Govern. ment to the working of the Post Office Depart
1.The abandonment of long leases, after granting the same for nearly fifty years, will have the effect of
a.-Placing all property held on 999 years
lease at a high premium. b. Reducing the premium on sales of Crown lands from 50 per cent. to 60 per cent, ac- cording to locality. c.--Producing a great decline in the demand for Crown lands and consequent falling off
in revenue.
L
d. Increasing the stringency in the money market by rendering many properties nou- negotiable as securities for loans, any lease having less than sixty years to run being regarded as insufficient by trustees and cor- porations.
2. Another result of the change will be that the city of Victoria will cease to expand as it will not pay to erect substantial buildings such as banks, hotels, mercantile offices, &c., on lease hold ground held for a short term. It will prove more remunerative to purchase existing buildings, pull them down and re-erect, economis ing the area by increasing the altitude, the effect being to aggravate congestion and inten- sify the risk of fire.
3. The prospect which hitherto seemed so favourable of this colony attracting various
ment.
On previous occasions the Chamber has had to complain of delayed deliveries of various mails causing great inconvenience to the mer- cantile community. The complaints now laid before the Committee, copies of some of the principal of which are enclosed, are of the non. delivery of important business correspondence duly posted but never received. This is a much more serious matter, since it not only entails immediate loss, personal annoyance, and far- reaching inconvenience, but it tends to destroy all confidence in the Post Office, a department in which it is usual to place implicit reliance.
It is perfectly clear that there is widespread for it must be given which ought not, in a well pilfering in the Post Office, and opportunities regulated office, to be afforded. The system of protecting the mails adopted is evidently faulty, and the supervision exercised over their making пр and despatch would seem to be either very casual or ineffective to admit of the robberies lately perpetrated.
Having regard, therefore, to the serious nature of the complaints, of which those laid before it in writing are only representative of numbers more, the Committee would respect fully urge the Government to institute an im-
►
We trust that your Committtee will see their way to impress upon His Excellency that this question of the loss of correspondence is highly important to the public at large and that a searching enquiry should be made to ascertain if it is possible or probable that our missing letters were abstracted before the mail bags were placed on board the steamers mentioned.
We have both ourselves and through our solicitors approached the Postmaster-General direct on the subject, but we cannot say that the result of the interviews has been-to inspire. us with confidence that there will not be a re-
currence of losses, and we fear that no real enquiry will be made in the Post Office as to how this correspondence has been lost and adequate steps taken to prevent its recurrence in the future.We are, sir, yours faithfully,
R.
CAWASJIE, PALLANJIE & Co.
C. Wilcox, Esq., Secretary, Hongkong
Hongkong, 10th October 1898,
General Chamber of Commerce.
matters have already been having the attention Dear Sir,-As the Hongkong Post Office of your Committee, we beg to acquaint you with the following:
On the 1st ult. we addressed a cover to our firm in Foochow per Haitan and same was sent into the Post Office on that date, in the usual way, in a chit-book. The Haitan sailed on the 2nd and in due course we
new industries to its shores must dissipate into mediate and most searching inquiry into the from our Foochow firm received a telegram
their air, as it is quite out of the question to suppose that capitalists will lay down expensive plant and rear massive buildings with no better tenure for their property than a 75 years lease. 4-Landed property in Hongkong has, ever since the extension of the Crown leases to 999 years, been the favourite form of investment th the Chinese and large sums of money
entire working of the Department, with a view to fix where and how the robberies are com- mitted, and to take such steps as will render their repetition practically impossible. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
R. CHATTERTON WILCOX.
Secretary.
the effect that they had not received the letter and up till date of last arrivals from Foochow same had not reached them.
On receipt of the telegram we notified Postmaster-General of the fact of the non- delivery of the cover, and asked him to be good enough to institute enquiries on the matter and on 24th ult. we received a notification from