22
to
(that is allowed for if he were the judge of the necessity!)
All.
expropriation of private interests any
compensation likely to be awarded would be
He distrusted the capacity of
useless.
the Hong Kong judges to decide compensation
cases, though he admitted that this difficulty
had been met to some extent by the provision
enabling the appointment of assessors to
assist the judge.
What he most strongly objected to was
the taking of general powers in this Bill.
So
^
He would not strongly oppose the taking of
powers to acquire private rights xx in individual
cases in which it was necessary in the
public interest to interfere with th
private enterprises. He expressed the fear
feneral
that the Governor would, if these powers
were granted, put forward extravagant or
unreasonable proposals for expropiating
private enterprise at great cost to the
Colony; and he did not appear to derive any
satisfaction from my assurance that the
Governor would not be able to initiate large
enterprises of that nature without the
approval of the Secretary of State.
He
"(beyond the works,
an
allend mitinted, am the Vehicular Jerry
wanted to know what special works the Govr.
had in mind when preparing the Bill. So far
as he was aware, there was no immediate
necessity for taking special powers of this
nature. I gave him the substance of the
second paragraph of the Governor's despatch
of 29th March but informed him that we had not
x
received any schedule of works likely to be
undertaken under the powers given by the Bill
if it is passed.
Mr.