Enclosure 1.
628
To the RIGHT Honourable HER MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.
THE HUMBLE Petition of THOMAS HOWARD of Victoria in the Colony of Hongkong Merchant and MATTHEW JOHN DENMAN STEPHENS of the same place Solicitor.
Sheweth :
1. Your Petitioners are the registered Crown Lessees of Marine Lot No. 184 situate at Victoria in the Colony of Hongkong upon which are erected substantial Warehouses and Godowns belonging to your Petitioners for the Storage of Merchandize.
2. During the years 1885 and 1886 your Petitioners with the sanction of the Government and at considerable expense erected a hardwood Pier or Wharf in front of the said Marine Lot No. 184 for the purpose of enabling steamers of the greatest draught to come alongside and discharge or take in passengers and cargo which cargo could be removed into or from the said Warehouses and Godowns direct from or to the steamers alongside the said Pier. The said Pier was 305 feet in length and 100 feet in width at the end or T head thereof. A copy of the Plan of the said wharf is comprised in the Appendix hereto (Appendix No. 1).
3. In the year 1889 an Ordinance No. 16 of 1889 intituled the Praya Reclamation Ordinance 1889 was enacted to carry out a scheme for the reclamation of the foreshore opposite the city of Victoria which scheme comprises the reclamation from the sea of the frontage of your Petitioners' Lot and the destruction of your Petitioners' Pier or Wharf and by section 7 of the said Ordinance it was agreed that the cost of the works should include (inter alia) a sum not exceeding $180,000 by way of compensation to Owners and Occupiers of Wharves and Piers along the line of the proposed Reclamation. A copy of this Ordinance is comprised in the Appendix hereto (Appendix No. 2).
4. The Plan of the said Reclamation deposited in the Land Registry Office under the provisions of the said Praya Reclamation Ordinance 1889 shews the line of the Reclamation divided into seven sections numbered 1 to 7 and the Wharf of your Petitioners opposite to Marine Lot No. 184 is situated in No. 1 of the said Sections. A copy of the said Plan so far as relates to Section 1 is comprised in the Appendix hereto (Appendix No. 3).
Appendix No. 2.
Appendix No. 4,