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The COLONIal SecretarY-I beg to sec. ond, and in doing so I beg to inform this Council that the question of compensation for removal of piers was referred t.. the Secre tary of State for the Colonies, and a reply was re- ceived to the effect that while he was not ready to abandon any rights the Crown might possess ke was at the same time prepared to consider each individual case on its own merits as it might arise.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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of being subsidised by the State as are the river steamers in Tonkin. I trust these re-
convince marks will
your Excellency that wharves are constructed chiefly for the comfort and benefit of the general public. Consequently the proposed heavy wharf dnes should not be imposed upon them.
[ December 30, 1899. only charged one third light dues when the boats come in at night and nothing when they - come in during the day.
His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR-This has beeu before the Piers Committee. The rents in the present schedule are one-half the rents in the original schedule.
The HON. E. R. BRLIL!O)—I have also mentioned that at Tonkin the river steamers are exempt from all dues and are subsidised.
The COLONIAL TREASURER (jocularly)—I The ACTING Attorney-General-Your | think theatres are subsidised there too. Excellency, with regard to what has just fallen His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR-Do you from the honourable member, I would mention | wish this to be put that the rents be reduced that the piers and wharves mentioned by him | by one half ? were erected under a special Ordinance. There. The Hon. E. R. BELILIOS.-Yes. fore they seem to stand on a somewhat different footing from the other piers and wharves in the colony. With regard to what has fallen from the honourable member as to the increase of rent in accordance with the schedule of this Bill. I would inform the honourable member that Mr. | Arnold, who is the secretary to the steamboat | company of which the honourable member is chairman, was one of the committee which con- sidered this question, and that Committee sug- gested certain matters of detail in which they considered that this Bill might be improved, but it was never suggested that the rent which it was proposed to lety was an exhorbitant rent as the honourable member seems to think.
The motion was carried.
The Council then went into committee to consider the Bill clause by clause.
No special comment was made until the sche- dule with the scale of rents chargeable under the Ordinance for encroachments of piers over Crown foreshore was reached, which scale is as follows:-(a) Within the Harbour limits on the Hongkong side
180
For encroachments of 500 sq. ft. or less $ 10 For encroachments exceeding 500 square
feet, but not exceeding 1,000 sq. ft. For encroachments exceeding 1,000 sq. feet, but not exceeding 2,000 sq. ft... For encroachments exceeding 2,000 sq.
feet, but not exceeding 3,000 sq. ft.. For encroachments exceeding 3,000 sq.
feet, but not exceeding 5,000 sq. ft... Fo. encroachments exceeding 5,000 sq.
300
480
660
900
feel, but not exceeding 10,000 sq. ft. For encroachments exceed. 10,000 sq. ft. 1,200
(b.) In any other place: half the above scale. The Hon. E. R. BELILIOS-I beg to propose that this scale be reduced by one-half. Per. haps you are not aware that for our largest pier ander present conditions only $15 a month is charged. Recently rates have been added to the extent of $15 a month, making 830 a mouth. This new schedule will make the payment three times as much.
The Hon. E. E BELILIOS-Your Excel- lenoy, in comparing this Bill with the Bill" which was before the Council some time In the middle of this year, I find that the wharves and piors of the Kowloon Wharves and Godowns Company have been exempted from the operation of the Bill. I feel. sir, that if the case of the other wharvos were placed before Your Excellency in their true lights you would also be disposed to exempt them as well from the proposed increased dues. The inadvisability of the proposed measure is so palpable that it needs but little comment from me. The extra taxation is to be imposed now, long after the several steam boat com. panies have entered into leases with landed proprietors on the Praya for sea frontages, some of these leases running on for twenty one years and long after large sums of money have been expended on the erection of wharves. Some of these wharves have cost as much as one hundred thousand dollars, an expenditure entered upon without the least prospect of a single dollar coming back in the shape of in- terest for capital :ank there. These wharves being fixtures and passengers having become accustomed to use them, they cannot now well be removed. To tax them now is tantamount to permitting & man to build a costly house on Crown land and then to come down upon him for six or eight times the amount of Crown reat he had reckoned on having to pay when he first acquired the site. It is like taking him aware and seizing advantage of his helpless condition. The tax will fall on one section of the community- shareholders of the several steam-boat com panies, a small proportion compared with the large population inhabiting this colony. The opium farmer benefits by these wharves. They afford bim facilities to search passengers land ing here with smuggled opium on their persons, I know it for a fact that when the subsisting agreement was being negociated Sir Willian Robinson tried his best to persuade the opi- um farmer to abandon his right of search. This the farmer cousented to do, on coudi- tion that a large sum should be deducted from The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS-I the rent he had to pay into the Treasury for the think the bonourable member is labouring un- farm. It is therefore evident that the colonyder a mistake. One pier in the harbour is benefits by the use of these wharves. Assum paying $215 a month under a special agree ing that there were no wharves in the barbour ment. Of the last eight piers which Your and that steamers coming here were compelled Excellency has sanotioned, seven pay $75 a to discharge in mid-stream, it is easy to imagine mouth, and they are very willing to pay it, and the state in which our food stuffs would be
for the eighth $90 a month is being paid. found if they had to be pitched and dumped They are under special agreements, and under overboard helter-skelter into sampans. Imagine this Ordinance these rates will continue. I these sampaus struggling against wind and have every reason to know that the people have tide to arrive at the different market placeS paid the money very willingly and make a in the city of Victoria! Imagine the state very good thing out of it. One of the cases of mind in which house-keepers would be found which brought forward this Piers Ordinance owing to the delay in these supplies reach- last year was A case where the Government ing their destination! The total sum to col. got $75 a month for a small bamboo pier near leated from these wharves would be so small the Central Markei whilst the fortunate owner that it would assuredly not be worth while sub-let it for $125 a mouth. that was a case to causing all this amount of irritation, incon- show what an extremely profitable property these nenience, and disappointment amongst a large piers are. So I think the honourable member number of Her Majesty's loyal subjects. As- has fallen iuto a great mistake when he says the suming for the sake of argument, however, that maximum amount paid by the Canton and Macao the steamers which use these wharves do no Steamboat Company is $39 a month. special good to the colony. it cannot be denied that they bring grist to the mill in the shape-No wonder they pay good dividends. of passengers coming here en route to different parts of the world. These people stay here for days, if not for weeks, and during their sojourn spend money in the colo y, thus in no incon siderable degree belping to augment the Colonial Exchequer. The services of the river steamers are recognised by the Chinese Government, for in Canton they are al- lowed certain privileges, privileges that are denied to the ocean-going boats resorting to that port for trade; whereas here in a British colony flying the Union Jack, under which they are supposed thrive, it is now proposed to mulot them in payment of heavy wharf dues, instead of being privileged, instead of being sxempted from paying light dues, and instead
His EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR (jocularly)
The Hon. E. R. BELILIOS-These arrange- ments were eutered into when the Bill was pending.
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS—With regard to the Macao Wharf the payment of the sum of $215 a month was agreed to long before this Bill was contemplated.
The Hon E. R. BELIL108-Of course 1 cannot defend my company; but the reason of that was that we were compelled to shift and we had nowhere to go to.
The HARBOUR MASTER-The honourable member mentions the privileges conferred upon the colony by the wharves and piers, but he lius not mentioned the privilege granted to the Can. ton and Macao Steamboat Company, who are
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The Hon. E. R. BELILIOS--I have only just heard that Mr. Arnold was chairman of that committee.
HIS EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR-Oh no; be. was not ohairman. He was one of the members. The Hon. E. R. BELILIO8-He had no authority from the Board to not as such.
The Hon. C. P. Chater—i may mention for Your Excellency's information, that I have had a good deal to do with regard to this Bill. It originally came forward I think 12 months ago, when General Black was administering the colony an order or regulation was passed putting on a tariff double that which is in this Bill, and - an advertisement was put in the Gazette stating it was to take effect from a certain date. I appealed to General black and to the Executive Connoil very strongly on the subject, and ultimately it was decided to leave the matter in aboyauce until Your Excellency's arrival. On Your Excellency's arrival, if you recollect, you took up this question at once, and the matter has been threshed out from that date till now. Nearly 12 months ago the pier own rs called a meeting of those interested in piera. A committee was appointed, and if I mistake not Mr. Herbert Smith, of the China Navigation Company, was appointed chairman. They went into the question vory thoroughly and submitted their views to me to bring before the Government, which I did. After some negotia. tions the matter was arranged; and this tariff was what was arrived at by this committee. The only one point which was held over, and for which the Bill has been so long delayed, was with regard to the compensation clause. The owners, like the hou urable member opposite, argued that after having spent large amounts in putting down piers and wharves it would be a great hardship if within two or three mouths the Government ordered their removal without compensation. Their views and also the views of the Government on this point were submitted by Your Ex ellency, to the Secretary of State; hence the delay. The reply of the Secretary of State was received a short time ago and was submitted to me, and I in turn submitted it to the committee. Mr. Arnold is a mem- ber of that committee, and took a very prominent part in it. I think the minutes of the committee were forwarded to your Excel. lency or to the Colonial Secretary, and they bore Mr. Arnold's ignature. It is for that reason I cannot possibly second or help the honourable member with regard to the various points he has brought forward. If the matter had not been gone into as fully as it has I should have been faclied to su, port him in one or two of the amendments he has expressed, but the matter having been thoroughly gone into by the pier owners and by those who are likely to have piers in the future, and committee formed of these pier owners having arrived at the con- clusions they did, I regret that I for one can- not support him at the present moment.
His EXORLlency the Governor-Does the honourable member wish the amendment to be pnt P
The Hon. . R. BELILres Yes, sir. The amendment was then put and lost, HIS. EXCEI LENCY the GOVLENOR-With regard to what the Hon. Mr. Chater has said, I see no reason why I should not read yon the Secretary of state's saswer on this question of compensation, because I think the pier owners need not be afraid. This was my despatch which I sent in Septembe
Sir. I have the honour to submit for your decision the following point which has arisen in› conn.ction with the rights of this Government over the piers and wharves erected on Crown land and within the waters of this Colony.
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