STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
EXPROPRIATION OF THE UNDERTAKING OF
THE TANJONG PAGAR DOCK COMPANY.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR BRIEF AND COUNSEL TO ADVISE UPON
EVIDENCE.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :---
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C.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
8 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
NOTE. The Governor's despatch enclosing these Instructions is printed in Eastern No. 96.
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C.
The first of the accompanying documents is the map of the Island and Harbour Appendix of Singapore, showing at a glance the situation of the Company's properties, blocked A. in red (Appendix A). Next are two plans which show in detail the working Appendix properties of the Company at the respective settlements of Singapore and Penang, B. that at Singapore comprising Tanjong Pagar Dock proper and the New Harbour Dock (Appendix B.), and that at Penang the Prye River Dock (Appendix C.). The Appendix two Singapore docks, together with the slipway at Tanjong Rhu on the other side of the Singapore Harbour, constitute the whole of the docking and the greater part The scope of the ship-repairing facilities of the port, which ranks so high in the great centres of the of the world's shipping. It is.not to be denied that the questions to be considered under- prior to, and at, the proposed Court of Arbitration, are of a manifold, intricate, and important nature.
taking.
D.
It is undoubtedly the case that in exercising the powers of expropriation acquired by the recent Colonial Ordinance (VII. of 1905), a copy of which is also Appendix laid herewith (Appendix D.), the Government of the Colony is determining an investment of very considerable value to the shareholders of the Company, whose interests have to be considered from every point of view as opposed to the policy and expediency which has compelled such acquisition.
Its history.
The history of the formation and progress of the Company is as follows:- The advantages of the narrow channel forming the entrance to the harbour from Natural the west (on the northern side of which the Company's wharves are situated) for advantages, the construction of jetties and docks were recognised in the early days of the settlement of Singapore, at which time most of the shipping of necessity resorted to the open roads, where much inconvenience is experienced from the north-east monsoon. Though the navigable portion of this channel is only 100 to 200 yards across, it is fringed with reefs, close to the edges of which there is water of a depth varying from three to four, and, in some places, from five to six fathoms.
In January, 1846, Mr. Jacob Clunis, a blacksmith and shipwright, submitted to The In- the Government a scheme for the construction of a dock at Pulau Brani, the small ception in island on the south of the channel in question. The construction of this dock was
1846. proceeded with in 1850, but Mr. Clunis was afterwards ejected, the site being required by the Naval Authorities for coal sheds.
Subsequently, in 1859, a Captain Cloughton, with whom were associated 1859. Mr. Joseph Burleigh, Messrs. D'Almeida and Messrs. Paterson, Simons and Co. (which firm is still amongst the largest shareholders of the Company) commenced the construction of a dock on a piece of land leased from the then Tumongong of Johore.
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