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the
- 3-
Government can returns for increased land sales
in Kowloon, assessments, relief perhaps of the overcrowding
in the Central Districts of Hong Kong with the consequent
saving on Sanitary and resumption work: it cannot in fact
pay far in advance for probable general developments, and
will hardly do more than follow hard on the heels of
development. Although the future of Hong Kong, justifies
an optimistic outlook, a Company can only base its
calculations on more immediate possibilities and if their
terms are accepted Government will be bound for a period
during which (granted a rivival of trade) a much broader
use could have been made of the Ferries than would be made
by the provision of increased dividends to shareholders.
Increased profits in Government hands could be invested as
reduction of fares, without the pitfalls of conditions
in advance, showing a growing return in general prosperity.
The direct profits from the Ferry would no doubt
be less under direct Government control than under the
management of a private Company: but an enhanced total
return to Government would still be available for the benefit
of the Community.
a
5.
The long leases of practically all wharves in the
Colony expire in 1949 19 years hence. A private company
which entered into an undertaking of the kind contemplated
in the tenders, with some $2,000,000 Capital required,
would hardly be content with a lease of 19 years only: and
the Star Ferry suggestion is in fact a fifty years lease of
the Jubilee Street and Jordan Road sites. Just at this
juncture when freedom from some of our old troubles is in
sight, it seems a pity to begin tying our hands afresh.
6.
The ideal solution for the difficulties of
development and transport in Hong Kong occasioned by the
Harbour is a bridge or tunnel.
Both have been seriously
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