January 11, 1904.]
trate had granted fishing rights to the man, who, falsely represented himself to be a fisherman on pisoel of coast which he falsely represented to be adjacent to where he lived. That claim would have been met by very small compensation especially as it appeared from the expert evidence put in that a fishing licence of that kind was revocable (the rent being paid annually) by the magistrate in any year, certainly on a year's notice he did not know whether it could be done in less. It would not do to go to the Land Court and ask large compensation for such a licence. It wanted a very strong propping up to give it another meaning sito gether. That propping up appeared by the document El, which purported to be a notice from the San On magistrate stating that as soon as the hills had been opened up into fields and
the sea beach reclaimed the amount of land
that was acquired should be at once reported to the district magistrate; that measurements would be made according to law and additional taxes levied on the fields and lands according to the scale of taxation. In the first place it was alleged that this was a forgery. He did not think any evidence had been given before the Land Court or there that it was written by the magistrate or came from him. So far from that being the case it was stated distinctly and clearly that there was no evidence of it to be found in the yamen. That would make it extremely suspicious. The document itself was not consistent with the petition for making a dock which, he understood, Ho Lap Pun said was originally intended, because it spoke of "as the hills have been opened up into fields." You did not make fields for the purpose of making a dock. Again, it was in- consistent with the other document C1. Why
soon
8.8
the magistrate, having granted this fishing licence, should on the very same day write to him and speak about the hills being opened up into fields was inconceivable. This document was absolutely inconsistent with the other document although it purported to be issued by the same man on the same day. In the absence of any proof that it was a genuine document issued by the magistate he declined to believe in the truth of it. The claim was delayed for six weeks to allow the claimant or his solicitors to bring forward any evidence they wished. They had known all along that this
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
from his father, but he was bound to say that in his opinion the person who got
up these
papers and paid the back rent-which, it was perfectly clear, wás done with a view to making a claim-must have noted in a way that he did not at all consider bona-fide. It seemed to him that the Land Court had been imposed upon by a document which was probably fraudulent and certainly had no operative fores. In his opinion the judgment should have been that certain fishing rights had been granted for a certain area (the exact amount not being very clearly stated) to this claimant, that the value was estimated by himself and the Chinese Government at $5 a year when they were granted and thatitappeared to the Court he had made no use or extremely little use of these rights, which were revocable. It seemed to him monstrous that upon a claim of $5 a year for fishing rights a man should come before the Land Court and ask that he be awarded $50,000 for such a claim. He was not saying that if he had a freehold upon the land and it had gone up enormously in value be would not have been entitled to get the unearned increment, but in this case it did not appear that be bad any such title at all. All he could ask compensation for was the taking away, the stopping of his fishing rights which were 'o iginally worth $5 a year. There had been no evidence to show that it had ever been worth more than that to him. He thought the decision of the Land Court must be reversed and they should say that probably he had the fishing rights--nothing more.
The Puisne Judge concurred. Costs were allowed.
Tae Court adjourned at 1.15 p.m. After luncheon the Court heard another appeal against a judgment of the Land Court allowing the claim of Lam Tseung Fuk and Lam Tak Fuk to absolute ownership of sand banks along the sea beach in front of Kowloon City and Chinwan valued at $35,000.
The Attorney-General having addressed the Court,
Their Lordships reversed the decision of the Land Court and allowed costs.
The Court rose.
Wednesday, 6th January.
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR A. G Wise (PUISNE JUDGE).
CLAIM AGAINST MESSRS. SHEWAN, TOMES
AND CO.
The Sun On Wing firm, 214, Queen's Road Central, dealers in European goods, sued Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co. for $315 and costs, being damages suffered by the plaintiffs by reason of non-delivery of three cases of underwear sold by defendants to the plaintiffs as follows:-Loss on the goods bought at $17.50 per dozen and sold by the plaintiffs at $23 per dozen, 30 dozen equal to $165; damages paid by the plaintiffs to the buyers on account of non-delivery, $150; in all $315, or $331.20 including costs. Mr. G. K. Hall Bratton, solicitor, appeared for the plaintiffs, and Mr. C. Ewens, of Messrs. Ewens and Harston, for the defendant firm.
Thursday, 7th January,
IN BANKRUPTOY.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR WILLIAM M. GOODMAN (CHIEF JUSTICE).
RECEIVING ORDER,
petitioned for a receiving order sale of the In the matter of Ma Chuk Ting, who
Grist of Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist, solicitors, estate of Ma Ying Wa deceased, Mr. E. J. appeared in support of the petition. The estates, he said, were insufficient to pay the actions commencing against the executor, as executor of the estate. It seemed to him that the only way of dealing with the case was to administer it in bankruptoy. The assets were $21,000, of which $12,000 was actual cash. the estate was bankrupt. The application was wrongly drawn out. He seldom got these in proper form. There must be proper proof,
debts of the deceased, and there were several
The Chief Justice asked how he was to know
Mr. Grist said the form was strictly in accordance with Section 4 of No. 7. It was the only form under Bankruptcy law.
The Chief Justice remarked that it was a very unsatisfactory form.
A receiving order was made and Mr. Bruce Shepherd, Official Receiver, was appointed
trustee.
ABSCONDERS.
Tai, Chan Sze, alias Chan Cheak Hing, Chan Luk, In the case of the public examinationof Chan
alias Chan Hang Shek, Chan Chat, alias Chan In Shan, and Chan Shap Sam, alias Chan Chu, trading under the name of Him Yuen at 104, Bonham Strand, Mr. J. Hastings, solicitor,
appeared and asked for an adjournment to allow
the debtors to appear.
The
December the day for public examination Chief Justice said that on 22nd
was fixed for 7th January, and the debtors should have attended. It was contempt of Court, and he would order warrants to be issued for their arrest.
Mr. F. X. d'Almada e Castro, solicitor, who appeared on behalf of the petitioning creditors, said that he had no objections to an adjournment.
ན
Mr. Hastings said that the debtors were in China, and were willing to come down for examination, but the Chinese officials, owing to some proceedings in Canton, would not allow them to leave.
The Chief Justice said he had no affidavits to that effect,
Mr. Hastings remarked that it would be to the interests of all to have the debtors present, and they are willing to attend if his Lordship would give them time.
The Chief Justice-The interest of the Court is that its orders are implicitly obeyed.
debtors escaped the runners at Canton, and Mr. Bruce Shepherd-I am informed that the suggested that they should be communicated with and told to come direct to Hongkong.
The Chief Justice-What are the assets ? Mr. Bruce Shepherd-No statement has been filed.
Mr. d'Almada-The oreditors think there is
enough to pay in full, but the debtors only want to give 30 per cent.
document was impugned and they had had an extra six weeks besides the two or three months that elapsed before the case came on last time to find out whether the magistrate declared the document to be a genuine one from himself. No such evidence was forthcoming and therefore he could not place any
reliance on that document. The third document they relied on was a map of the whole Colony, the whole value of which was a Chinese inscription written in ink along part of the coast line to the effect that that part of the coast pertained to the claimant. It was not sug- gested that there was any official seal to this фар or anything to prevent anybody writing anything they pleased on 8 map of the whole Colony, The Land Court appeared to have taken that map as if it had been proved that the writing had existed at the time and that it had been approved by the magistrate. He could quite well understand that the Land Court, having such an enormous number of claims before it did not feel itself bound to require such absolute proof as would be required in the Supreme Court. At the same time he could not help thinking that the Land Court had given a little undue weight to this document as they had no evidence showing where it came from, and as anybody would be perfectly able to write anything on
such a map. They had no proof that it was approved by the magistrate,. He was bound to say he had some sympathy for the difficulties of the learned gentleman who had to pre- side in the Land Court. In the Supreme Court they had many advantages that the Land Court did not possess. They had a learned exposition of the law of China by gentismen | shown a remarkable increase of late years. The they were not arrested. I refuse to enter inta
well qualified to express an opinion upon it. He did not think the Land Court had these advant- ages, and was inclined to think the Land Court trusted a little too much to the good faith of the claimant in this case. He was willing to take it from Mr. Ho Lap Pun that he really knew nothing about this and got the papers
It appeared that plaintiffs took delivery of three cases; when they applied for delivery of the remaining three, which they had already sold, they were informed that they were not yet to hand. For failure to deliver the goods to the purchasers, plaintiffs paid $150 in the way of compensation.
After hearing the evidence,
A
His Lordship gave judgment for the plaintiffs with costs.
Mr. Ewens asked for stay of execution for a week with a view to a possible appeal.
His Lordship granted this, and the Court adjourned.
The demand for American flour in Japan has value of the flour imported now amounts to some 3,000,000 Yen annually, and there are indications of a still further increase. About ten years ago the value of flour imported was not more than 700,000 yen per annum. The demand began to show gradual increase at the conclusion of the Japan-China war.
to
Mr. Hastings-l'he Official Receiver is willing agree to an adjournment. It is the only way to get the property. I submit that it would be to the benefit of all parties to allow the debtors to stopped by proceedings in their own country. come down to assist the Court. They have been
The Chief Justice I think it is great con- tempt of Court for them to send a representative to apply for an adjournment. I have no evidence that they are being proceeded against. If we do not get anything we shall have the satisfac tion of keeping some scoundrels out of the Colony. The order made for the public examina tion of the debtors was fixed for to-day for them to be here to be examined. Instead of appear ing they send a solicitor to negotiate with the Court and state that they would condescend to come down and obey the orders of the Court if any negotiations and as provided by section 24 of the Bankruptcy Act, sub-section 1 (d) “if s debtor fails to attend any examination order this Court he may be arrested by warrant, his books and papers seized "—this is exactly they have done—I order a warrant to be issued.
The Court afterwards adjourned.