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To His Excellency
SIR GEORGE WILLIAM DES VŒUX K.C.M.G.
Governor of Hongkong, Commander in Chief
and Vice Admiral of the same.
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF GRANVILLE SHARP.
Whereas upon the resumption of a portion of Inland Lot No. 671 for Military purposes your Petitioner immediately impugned the justice of the Surveyor General's valuation, declined to accept the payment offered and protested against the forcible appropriation of his land without any opportunity being afforded to him to state his case, offering at the same time to do so when called upon.
The Government wrote on the 9th of February, 1887 that his protest was receiving consideration.
*
As two years have now elapsed since this assurance was given and in view also of changes which, it is understood, are imminent in the public service, your Petitioner feels constrained to bring his case under the personal notice of the Governor, which he most respectfully ventures to do as follows.
"3
In his report to the Government on this matter the Surveyor General states "that Inland Lot No. 671 is of the same character and value as the adjoining lots Nos. 670 and 672, portions of which have been also recently re-entered by the Crown,' and hereby justifies the resumption of the ground at .40 cents $ per superficial foot," the owners of the two adjoining lots having accepted the same value." The fol- lowing facts will show that the rights of one of the lots are essentially dissimilar, and that the owner of the other lot was, as he affirms, coerced into parting with it against his will, and by a statement which was entirely incorrect
As to Inland Lot No. 672 the owner, Say Gnew Moon, one of the oldest Chinese settlers in the colony, distinctly avers
** that
"the capital which had gone out upon the ground was one dollar and a half per foot" that he had refused two dollars a foot for the Lot: that he was most unwilling to sell at a loss: that he appealed in vain by petition to the Government for protection: that he was informed that the Government required the ground, and that he must give it up: and that after fruitless efforts to obtain relief from the pressure placed upon him, he was eventually induced most reluctantly to relinquish the property required, and to accept the sum offered by the Surveyor General in consequence of his belief of the assurance given to him that his neighbours Mr. Sharp and Mr. Chater had both accepted the same compensation for their lots.
This statement, if made, was wholly untrue. Mr. Sharp was at that time absent from the Colony, and returned on the 27th July, 1885, two months afterwards.
The sea wall opposite to Inland Lots Nos. 071 and 072 was then being built, and Marine Lots Nos. 177, 178, 179, 180, 181 and 182 reclaimed by him from the sea. Finding that the work of filling in was delayed by the want of earth, Mr. Sharp, on 11th August, addressed Major Lloyd, commanding at that time, intimating his intention to proceed at once with the cutting of the hill, sending at the
* The approaching departure of Mr. J. M. Price, Surveyor General, in April following. ** See statement in appendix at end.
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