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A rival dock or slipway might be constructed Inland Lot 10494 and cause a heavy fall in the Hongkong & Whampoa Dock shares, so that, in order to protect themselves, Messrs Jardine, Matheson & Co. and Humphreys, the above-mentioned large shareholders, were induced to pay a considerable sum for Farm Lot 1474.
Several huts have been erected on the property in contravention of the terms of the lease, but the Government is advised that as it has regularly received the Crown rent, it cannot compel their removal.
Many of these huts are in a very insanitary condition and doubtless, as the work of improving the sanitary condition of this district proceeds, they will be condemned and their removal rendered necessary.
The property will therefore, if continued to be held under a Farm lease, be available only for the purposes of the lease.
The usual annual rent charged by the Crown for land held under the form of tenure known as a "squatter's license" is $5 per acre, which capitalised at 33 years' purchase gives $165 per acre, making the value of Farm Lot 1474 $1,073, and, when it is considered that investments in local companies yield 6 to 9 percent per annum, I see little chance of the market value of this property under the present form of lease exceeding $1500.
The offer that has been made to Messrs Jardine, Matheson & Co. and Humphreys is set forth in my letter of the 6th of November, 1895, and was ...