375
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
LTC.O. 882
с
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
35918.
No. 285.
GOVERNOR SIR H. A. BLAKE tọ MR. CHAMBERLAIN,
(No. 338.) SIR,
(Received December 26, 1899.)
[Answered: see 35917: not printed.]
Government House, Hong Kong, November 24, 1899. WITH reference to my despatch, No. 321, of the 10th instant, I have the honour to transmit a report by Mr. Messer, the Acting Land Officer in the New Territory, which shows that my previous estimates of acreage and revenue were in part erroneous, and were due to mistaken calculations, based on less reliable sources than those now at my disposal.
2. The estimated acreage and revenues given in the annexed report are probably fairly accurate, though it is likely that they also will have to undergo modifications when I have before me the results of the survey which has now commenced.
I have, &c.,
HENRY A. BLAKE.
Governor.
Enclosure in No. 285.
Estimate of the Area of Land under Cultivation in the New Territory.
In the Chinese register of land in the San On District the area of cultivated land is in round numbers 420,000 maus.
This land as registered includes land which has been built upon, wooded slopes of some hills and a small proportion of uncultivated ground.
The area of that part of the mainland of the San On District leased to Great Britain has been calculated by the Honourable Director of Public Works to be 286 square miles, and the combined area of the various islands to be 90 square miles.
The area of that part of the mainland of the San On District remaining Chinese territory, according to the Italian missionary map, is approximately 384 square miles.
If the islands be excluded, the proportion of cultivated to uncultivated land in the newly leased mainland is approximately the same as that in the area remaining under Chinese jurisdiction; if anything, this proportion is greater in that part of the San On District which has not been leased to Great Britain.
The amount of cultivated land in the various islands registered in the San On register is about 2,000 maus.
Hence the amount of cultivated land in the mainland leased to Great Britain which
288 has been registered in the Chinese register is about 418,000 × 384 + 286
maus.
==
178,429
Therefore the amount of cultivated land in the New Territory (including the islands) which has been registered with the Chinese Government is about 180,429 maus. Owing to the system giving false returns to the Chinese Government, only about three-fifths of the total amount of cultivated land has been registered in the San Ön land register.
Therefore the actual area of cultivated land in the newly-leased territory is about 300,715 maus.
At the present rate of taxation this area would yield an annual Crown rent of about $60,000.
This area would give the rates of cultivated to uncultivated land in the New Terri- tory as 1 in 5.3.
Until the survey of the territory has been completed, the areas, as given by the various landowners, have to be taken instead of the actual areas. In many cases the farmers still think that by not reporting all their land they will escape the payment of
• No. 281.
area.
Crown rent; also the area as at present reported is usually about 5/6ths of the actual The amount of Crown rent therefore that may be expected a year before the com- pletion of the survey is about $50,000,
November 21, 1899.
One mau equals 6,600 square feet. One acre equals 6.6 maus.
C. McI. MESSER.
150.
SIR,
No. 286.
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received January 2, 1900.)
Royal Courts of Justice,
January 1, 1900. We were honoured with your commands signified in Mr. C. P. Lucas's letter of the 19th ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to transmit to us a despatch* (with enclosures) from the Governor of Hong Kong, dated 6th October, which raised the question of the ownership of the foreshore of Mirs Bay under the Convention between the United Kingdom and China respecting an extension of the territory of Hong Kong, signed at Pekin on the 9th June, 1898.
That the question had arisen owing to an application to the Government of Hong Kong by one Pun Sik Man for permission to erect a pier on the foreshore of Mirs Bay, and that that application involved a number of subsidiary points of title, &c., which were dealt with at some length in the enclosures to the Governor's despatch, but did not materially affect the main substance of the reference to us. That it was probable, however, that Pun Sik Man's request was only the forerunner of other applications of s similar kind, and that as there was a divergence of opinion locally as to the rights of Her Majesty's Government under the Convention not only in Mirs Bay, but in Deep Bay, it seemed to be desirable that an authoritative decision should be obtained for the future guidance of the Government of Hong Kong.
That the clause in the Convention dealing with the subject would be found on page 2 of the enclosed print of that document, and ran as follows :—" The area leased to Great Britain, as shown on the annexed map, includes the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay, but it is agreed that Chinese vessels of war-whether neutral or otherwise-shall retain the right to use those waters.'
That it would be observed that the preamble to the Convention stated that the exact boundaries should be fixed subsequently, when proper surveys had been made by officials appointed by the two Governments. That the result of that further delimitation was contained in the inemorandum referred to in Mr. Stewart Lockhart's letter to the Governor of Hong Kong, which would be found on page 4 of the Hong Kong Blue Book. That the opening words of the memorandum, which was dated 19th March, 1899, and was signed by Mr. Stewart Lockhart and Wong Tsun Shin, for the British and Chinese Governments respectively, were to the following effect:-"The northern boundary commences at the point of high-water mark in Mirs Bay where the meridian of 114° 30′ East cuts the land and follows that high-water mark to the point marked with a peg immediately to the west of the market town locally known as Tung Wo Hii, and sometimes called 'Shat 'aukok." That later on, in the same memorandum, it was stated, almost in the words of the Convention, that "The waters of Mira Bay and Deep Bay are included in the area leased to Great Britain."
That subsequently to the signature of that memorandum, the Governor of Hong Kong issued a Chinese proclamation (see English text on page 21 of Hong Kong Blue Book). That the boundaries of the new extension of British territory were therein stated as follows (so far as pelated to the subject of the reference to us) - The northern boundary commences at the point of high-water mark in Mirs Bay where the meridian of 114° 30′ East bisects the land and follows that high-water mark to a point immediately to the west of Shat 'aukok.
From the mouth
·
of the Sham Chun River the boundary follows the high-water mark along the coast of Deep Bay till the point where the meridian of 113° 52′ bisects the land.
30656; not printed.