COPY.
sir,
ENCLOSURE 5
F
355
20014
Mest C NOV DE
Hong-Kong, 23rd. August, 1
1898.
We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of
the 5th, instant, stating that it had been decided provisionally
by the Right Hon. the Secretary of State that in future no
lease in the Colony should he granted for periods longer than
75 or at the outside 99 years (suitable provision being made
so that the Crown should not at the expiration of the lease
confiscate the whole value of the tenant's improvements), and
asking us to give briefly our views on the proposed change.
The leases hitherto granted by the Crown have
been for 999 years, which to all intents and purposes may be
considered free-hold. The change to the short period of 75
years would in our opinion have the effect of considerably re-
ducing the value of land offered for sale and of causing a
considerable increase in house rents on such property, neces-
sitated in order that landlords might be in a position to re-
coup themselves for the future loss of capital and the parti-
al confiscation of improvements. We belive also that the reve-
nue of the Colony would suffer materially by the reduced re-
ceipts from sales of land and from diminished Crown Rents.
Hon. R. D. Ormsby,
We
Director of Public Works.