645
54
To enable me to act, I most respectfully request a reply to the following questions:
1. Will the Government resume our Lot under the terms of the Crown Lease?
2. If the Government will not resume, and if we claim compensation under the Praya Reclamation Ordinance, will the Governor, in assessing our damages, proceed on the principle that we are entitled to a full and fair compensation for any loss sustained?
I am only seeking to know if His Excellency intends to deal with our claim on settled principles, or in any arbitrary manner; and I humbly submit that I am entitled to have an answer, in order that I may decide whether to send in a claim or not.
In conclusion, may I remind His Excellency that Governor Des Vœux thought it but equitable to make the Marine Lot owners pay $105,000 for a strip of the foreshore, to which no right had been acquired except permission to fill in; and also, that the Secretary of State for the Colonies insisted on $180,000 being set apart for compensation, not only to owners of piers but to occupiers, neither of whom have any rights except what can be terminated on a three months' notice; I, therefore, again submit that His Excellency Sir William Robinson need have no doubt as to the course to be pursued when covenanted rights acquired from the Crown are interfered with, and our business destroyed by that interference.
As I have before informed you that delay is most prejudicial to our interests, I shall feel obliged if His Excellency will state at his earliest convenience what course he proposes to adopt.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
SIR,
HONGKONG, 18th July, 1892.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th instant, in which you inform me by direction of His Excellency the Governor that he refers me in reply to my letter of the 13th instant, to your letter No. 1227 of the 2nd instant, and that he has nothing to add to it.
Permit me to point out for His Excellency's consideration that your letter of the 2nd instant is not in any sense a reply to mine of the 13th, and cannot be looked upon from any point of view as a reply to it.
You say in that letter that it is premature to discuss whether any and what compensation should be given us unless and until I prove depreciation of our property by reason of the construction of the Reclamation in front of it.
I have accepted that answer and agree that it is useless to discuss whether any and what compensation should be given us until I am in a position to prove some loss.
My letter of the 13th instant raises a further question, not dealt with yet in any of your letters, to which I most respectfully claim a considered reply.
I have pointed out that the construction of the Praya Reclamation in the front of our property will necessarily entail some loss; and I have asked, not whether any or what compensation will be given us, but on what principle His Excellency intends to proceed to assess compensation if and when claimed.
Whether he intends to proceed on the principles pointed out in the judgment of the Supreme Court of the 24th November, 1890, in the case of Ryrie v. The Attorney General of Hongkong, or arbitrarily under the powers apparently conferred by the Reclamation Ordinance.
I have the honour to be.
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
The Honourable G. T. M. O'Brien, C.M.G.,
No. 1319.
Colonial Secretary.
THOS. HOWARD.
The Honourable G. T. M. O'BRIEN, C.M.G.,
STB.
Colonial Secretary.
THOS. HOWARD.
HONGKONG, 18th August, 1892.
S18,
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
Hongkong, 15th July, 1892.
I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th instant, and in reply to refer you to my letter No. 1227 of the 2nd instant, to which His Excellency has nothing to add.
THOS. HOWARD, Esq.
I have the honour to be,
Sir.
Your most obedient Servant,
G. T. M. O'BRIEN,
Colonial Secretary,
Marine Lot No. 184.
I have to call your attention to the fact that the works of the Praya Reclamation have so affected the approach to our frontage that, at low tide this morning, cargo boats laden with sugar could not get alongside as formerly; and I now desire to ask that, if it is not contemplated to proceed with the Reclamation in front of our Lot immediately, the Government will send the Dredger to take away some of the mud, and thus restore our means of access to what it was before the commencement of the Reclamation.
I have the honour to be,
The Honourable G. T. M. O'BRIEN, C.M.G.,
Colonial Secretary.
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
THOS. HOWARD.