110
or
your Despatch of the 27th of August, last, "No. 23, you may think it right to exercise caution in regard to grants to schools or Colleges.
On the subject of that Despatch I propose to address you hereafter, and I have delayed coming to a final decision in the questions involved in it, only because I had reason to expect that I should receive communication on the subject from the Missionary Society in this country.
Observing that no particular duration of the grant is mentioned in the Return of Bazaar Lots, I wish to call your attention to this fact, in order that you may fix a suitable limit.
I perceive that Lots were granted to Mr. Johnston, and to Mr. Stewart, as Public Officers, on condition that Government shall have the option of purchasing the houses built on them; and for the "Harbor Master" the Land Officer appears to have been erected at the Public expense. You will learn from my Despatch of the same date, that it is not the intention of Her Majesty's Government to provide residences for any of the Public Officers at Hongkong, except the Governor, and I must add that, as a general rule, it is very objectionable to allow them free grants of Ground. The objection rests not merely on the pecuniary exemption which they obtain, but also on the circumstance that, since no competition takes place, the officers may select sites which ought not to be obtained for private dwellings. On general grounds, therefore, I am obliged to withhold my sanction to the grants of this kind already made, except subject to the payment of the usual rent as on other Lots of the same description.
I shall have more to say on this subject at a later date.
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