d..
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2
Increasing the stringency in the money market by rendering many properties non-negotiable as securities for loans, any lease having less than sixty years to run being regarded as insufficient
by trustees and corporations.
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2. Anther result of the change will be that the city of Victoria will cease to expand, an it will not pay to erect substantial buildings such as banks, hotels, mercantile offices, etc., on lease- holi ground held for a short term. It will prove more remunerative to purchase existing buildings, pull them down and re-erect, econ mising the area by increasing the altitude, the effect being to aggravate congestion and intensify the risk of fire.
3.
The prospect which hitherto seemed so favourable of this Colony attracting various new industries to its shores must dissipate into thin air, as it is quite out of the question to suppose that capitalists will lay down expensive plant and rear massive buildings with no better tenure for their property than a 75 years' lease.
4.
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Landed property in Hong Kong has, ever since the extangion of the Crown leases to 999 years, been the favourite form of investment with the Chinese and large sums of money are annually sent from Canton to be invested here. The Chinese regard the 999 years' lease as practically freehold, and hence feel a confidence in the security that they repose in no other investment. It would surely be most undesirable tc disturb that confidence or to stay that influx of capital into a Colony where, owing to the instability of exchange, this medium is so painfully restricted.
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5. Under this new system, rents which are already very high and press hardly on a large section of the community, will inevitably be largely increased, and the pressure will be felt the more severely by landowners, coming as it will immediately after the heavy outlays recently entailed on sanitary improvements. What is of even greater importance, however, is the check it will infallibly impose on the outgrowth of the city.
6. That check will extend more or less through the whole fabric of the Colony's prosperity, and will speedily make itself felt on the revenue. In attempting thus to provide for the benefit of posterity, shell we not be risking the row the legacy it is designed to
f bequeath?
W DIL
Trusting that His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government will without loss of time be so good as to make known the views of the Chamber on this momentous question to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, I have, ets.,
R. CHATTERTON WILCCX, Secretary. Hon. T. Sercombe Smith, Acting Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, H.K. 10th October, 1898.
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Sir,
I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd ultimo, relative to the meduction of the term if years for which Crown leases are granted, and to inform you that a copy of it was sent to Downing Street by the French mail of the 8th instant.
I have &c
T. SERCOMBE SMITH, Acting Colonial
The Secretary, Chamber of Commerce.
Secretary