ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE.
301
C.O.
29213
17 10 C
Hongkong 12th June, 1902.
Report on Ordinance // of 1902.
I have examined the accompanying Ordinance, entitled
An Ordinance to exempt certain Crown Leases and Agreements for
Crown Leases, and Permits granted by the Crown, from the operation of sections 3 and 4 of the Foreshores and Sea Bed Ordinance, 1901,
and I am of opinion that the Ordinance is one which is not contrary to the Governor's Instructions.
Since the earliest days of the Colony, it has been the practice for the Crown to erect and maintain, and to grant permission to erect and maintain, piers over the Crown foreshore (including the sea bed) in cases in which the Governor has deemed such erection and maintenance to be expedient and proper. Care has, of course, been taken in so doing to avoid interfering with any special rights of access to, and egress from, the sea, claimed by Marine lot owners.
In a large commercial port like Hongkong, such piers are necessary in order to afford proper facilities for commerce and passengers. When such piers are of ordinary dimensions and the Harbour Master has reported that they are unobjectionable so far as the requirements of harbour navigation, etc., are concerned, no one ever suggested, before the passing of the Foreshores and Sea Bed Ordinance, No. 21 of 1901, that any public rights of navigation or fishing are substantially interfered with, even assuming them to exist.
The Law of England was, by Ordinance No. 6 of 1845, section 4, introduced into this Colony "except where the same shall be inapplicable to the local circumstances of the said Colony or of its inhabitants" and, rightly or wrongly, it has never been understood that public rights of navigation and fishing existed of such a kind as to render the erection of a pier sanctioned by the Crown a public nuisance interfering with such rights.