Enclosure to No.
508
23731
NECO
Ox
Rec'd 4 SEP 99
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.--No. 393.
The following Rules are published.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 13th July, 1899.
RULES
J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
Colonial Secretary.
Made by the Governor-in-Council under section 3 of Ordinance 12 of 1899, this 18th day of July, 1899.
1. For the period from the 18th April, 1899, to the 17th April, 1900, Crown Rent shall be paid on agricultural land in the "New Territories," subject to the terms and conditions contained in the following Rules, namely :
2. Such Crown Rent shall be paid before the 31st of December, 1899, to the Treasurer or such officer as he may depute for that purpose.
3. Such Crown Rent shall, unless paid before the date aforesaid, be recovered by distress as for rent in arrear, and any tenant or occupier paying such Crown Rent shall be entitled to deduct the amount of such Crown Rent from the rent which he pays to his immediate landlord.
4. Such Crown Rent shall be paid in accordance with the following scale, namely:
(i) For land draining in a Southerly direction to the sea between Lyemun Point on the East and the Pier in the bay West of Lai Chi Kok on the West per half mau or portion thereof as follows:---
(a) For First class land 25 cents, or at the rate of $3.30 per acre per annum.
(b) For Second class land 20 cents, or at the rate of $2.64 per acre per annum.
(c) For Third class land 10 cents, or at the rate of $1.32 per acre per annum.
(ii) For all land (except land draining in a Southerly direction to the sea between Lyemun Point on the East and the Pier in the bay West of Lai Chi Kok on the West) per half muu or portion thereof as follows:--
(a) First class land 15 cents, or at the rate of $1.98 per acre per annum.
(b) Second-class land 10 cents, or at the rate of $1.32 per acre per annum.
(c) Third class land 5 cents, or at the rate of 66 cents per acre per annum.
5. The officer appointed by the Governor for the purpose shall decide whether any land in the New Territories is agricultural land or not, and, if he decides that such land is agricultural land, he shall also decide within which of the above three classes any such land falls and whether such land is so situated that the higher or lower of the above two scales applies to it; but, in the event of any person being dissatisfied with any such decision, an appeal shall lie therefrom to the Governor.
6. The expression "agricultural land" as used in these Rules shall mean land which is used solely and exclusively for purposes of agriculture or fruit-growing.
COUNCIL CHAMBER,
HONGKONG.
J. G. T. BUCKLE,
Clerk of Councils.