No.
149.
14035
Race 7 MAY 00
Government House.
Hong-Kong,
7th April, 1900.
385
sir,
I have the honour to report that before his de-
parture Sir Henry A. Blake found it necessary to make arrange-
ments for the appointment of a small survey staff to prepare
a Rent Roll for the cultivated portions of the New Territory.
4 It had been hoped that a Rent Roll could be
made from the registered claims to land entered at the branch
Land Offices in the New Territory, but this has been found to
be impracticable owing to the fact that in almost all claims
that have been presented the acreage of cultivated land in the
areas claimed is understated (in the hope of evading the pay- ment of portion of the Crown rent properly due) and that a
large number of the claims are fraudulent.
The registers of claims that are being made at the Branch Land Offices in the New Territory will be most use- ful when the Land Court commences its sittings, and it is pro- posed to continue them in order to collect all claims for sub- mission to the Court.
But for the purposes of making a Rent Roll it
is absolutely necessary that the particulars concerning owners
The Right Honourable
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN,M.P.
and
800.1
$ 800.
860
."