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Honourable C. P. CHATER, DEAR SIR,
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Enclosure E.
HONGKONG, 24th September, 1887.
RECLAMATION PROJECT.
With reference to marine lot No. 7 which at present is divided between three houses, I assume that the Hongkong Hotel Company, Limited will receive their fair proportion of the now ground, both on first and second bits. I bring this to your notice as it appears to me, from the signed plan, as if the Hongkong Hotel Company, Limited, would not receive in proportion to their present water frontage. I am,
Dear Sir,
DEAR SIR,
Yours faithfully,
D. McCULLOCH,
Chairman, Hongkong Hotel Company, Limited,
Enclosure F.
HONGKONG AND CHINA GAS COMPANY, LIMITED,
WORKS, WEST POINT,
HONGKONG, Vh September, 1887. PROPOSED RECLAMATION SCHEME.
In response to your invitation to marine lot-owners, to offer any objections, suggestions, or point out any other matter connected with the scheme and requiring development, I herewith beg to offer a few remarks as Agent for this Company; but at the same time do not bind myself or this Company to the opinions expressed, having in view the discussion of the scheme at a public inceting, and the probable modification of the views herein expressed.
It is impossible in a letter of this sort to bring before you all the reasons for the objections or suggestions I may make, but I do to some extent.
Cost.-As a first consideration we have to go into the cost.
In your letter of the 13th of July to the Colonial Secretary, you estimate the average cost of the reclaimed land as available for building purposes at $2 per square foot, and after reclamation the land will sell in no case for less than $4 per square foot, and in some cases from $12 to $15 per foot. Assuming that the average cost is $2 per square foot super. how is this to be paid, will each marine lot- owner have to pay $2 per square foot of the land he receives; if this is the intention, then I contend it is an injustice to those tuarine lot-owners extreme West of the Reclamation, for in the first place, the cost of reclamation in the Western District will be very much smaller than the cost in the Central District owing to the differ- ence in the depth of water, &c., in the second place, the land in the Central District being of such greater value than that in the West, it should pay a proportionately higher rate according to the sections marked on the Government Plan.
To apportion the cost relative to the depth of water, it would be necessary to have a complete and thorough survey and cost computed at so much per cubic foot, of the available land for building purposes.
To apportion the cost relative to the value of the reclaimed land it will be necessary to put an estimate value (derived from the latest transactions) on the land contained in the various sections, and the cost apportioned in proportion to the values so fixed.
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I contend however that the land at West Point will not sell for such a price as $4 per square foot, with the amount of land that will then be thrown on the market, and it is quite unfair to saddle the owners of land at West Point with the cost of reclaiming the land in the Central District which undoubtedly will sell for from $12 to $15 per square foot.
It will be absolutely necessary before the Marine Lot-owners are asked to pledge themselves to this scheme that they shall know what it is going to cost them, and for this purpose I would suggest that the Government should make a survey and lay before the Marine Lot-owners the approximate cost, say within $100,000, it will then be for the Marine Lot-owners to apportion this cost between them, having regard to the consideration I have mentioned.
say
Crown Rent.-The Government in condition No. 7 of the Colonial Secretary's letter "each marine lot-owner shall pay an annual Crown Rent of $200 per quarter acre; if the land Westward will only be worth $4 per foot and that Central, worth $12 to $15 per foot, is it fair and equitable that those Marine Lot- owners Westward should pay the same Crown Rent as those in the better favoured Central District. I would suggest that the Crown Rent on the reclaimed land, be placed at the same rate as the Crown Rent on the present Marine Lots, especially so as the annual Crown Rent for the present marine lots is not to suffer any rebatement.
25/ Security.--The Government in condition No. 4 of the Colonial Secretary's letter, say,
"each ruarine lot-owner shall deposit at the Bank 25 per cent of the total value of the contribution to the General Fund, by way of a guarantee of his bona fides, such 25 per cent to be forfeited to the Crown in the event of the marine lot-owners subsequently failing to take up his allotment of the reclamation;" the objections to this condition are many and various, and will in some cases no doubt exercise with considerable harshness, and as it is most likely to be discussed freely at the Public Meeting, I will not further comment on it, but would make the following suggestion for your consideration; that each marine lot-owner shall deposit at the Bank 5 per cent of the total value of his contribution to the General Fund by way of a guarantee of his bona fides, and at the same time execute a first mortgage on the proposed reclaimed site, on behalf of the Government and in the event of the marine lot-owner being, from any cause whatsoever, unable to take up his allotment, the 5 per cent deposit shall be returned to him, but the land shall lapse to the Government under the said mortgage.
Section Holders.-I note that in the Plan approved by the Government the reclaimed land has only been apportioned to the original Leaseholds, no regard having been taken of those sections into which the original Leaseholds have been divided from time to time.
I presume that the reclaimed land will be apportioned to these various sections in accordance with the plan of division already adopted and would suggest that the apportionment of these sections be done by the Government.
Existing Wharves and Piers.-This is a matter affecting those interested that will bear discussion.
Sewering, &c.-Condition No. 2 of the Colonial Secretary's letter is to the effect that all sewering and channelling is to be carried out by the Public Works Depart- ment at the cost of the marine lot-owners, and in your letter of the 13th of July to the Colonial Secretary you mention, that you are, "sanguine the marine lot- owners will come forward, and by carrying out the work at their sole expense, achieve free of cost to the public, the greatest sanitary improvement of which the Colony has ever stood in need of." With reference to this I have no doubt each marine lot-owners would be willing to bear his proportionate cost of the sewerage works necessary on the completion of such a scheine as this, but to carry out a great and needful improvement of the Colony, and one that it is contended the Colony has long stood in need of, is asking the marine lot-owners (who are altogether but a small section of the leaseholders in the Colony) to pay a large sum of money, not at all for any benefit to themselves, but admittedly as a benefit to the rest of the community, and to save the Government paying the cost of a needful sewerage
scheme.