ņ
i
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:
further afield at an ever increasing price.
3.
In the early days of the Colony there was
ample room for everybody, and the Military Authorities took
the best and most central areas in Victoria and in the
Kowloon peninsula. Even if they made full use of those
areas, it would still be against the interests of the Colony
that the Military Establishments should be housed in such
positions, but at the present day acres of some of the best
building land in the heart of the city are merely dotted here
and there with insignificant buildings, while, as I stated in
my despatch of the 23rd March, a large area in the best quarter of Kowloon is sparsely inhabited by mules.
.*
Elsewhere too development is entirely prevent-
ed by military claims in respect of land which is not in any
way required for military purposes. I may take for example
the case of Pinewood Battery. In January, 1901, this Govern-
ment was informed that it was proposed to erect a battery on
the western side of the island of Hongkong, and it was asked
to surrender some 35 acres of the area marked "Pinewood
Battery and Reserve" on the plan accompanying my despatch of
the 23rd March. The Government demurred on the ground that
many valuable building sites were included, but the Military
Authorities insisted that a Reserve was absolutely necessary
in order to prevent the erection of buildings above or below
the proposed battery and also that the position and extent of
the works might not be ascertained by unauthorised persons;
and eventually an area of some 72 acres had to be given up. The Battery was rendered obsolete, when the main defence batteries were placed on Mount Davis. In June last year a
local Company applied for land on the extreme edge of this Reserve for the purpose of erecting a large number of residen-
tial flats, but the project had to be abandoned because the
War Office had not had time to consider and announce its
decision