CO882-6

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

17. In the Chinese official rent rolls, the tax payable on land within the Wen- Teng district was taels 2,864, and within the Yung-Cheng district taels 1,541, or taols 4,405 in all, or roughly $6,300. It is safe to say that including recognized commissions charged on the Chinese by the collecting agents of the Chinese Magis- trates not more than $8,000 was ever collected by the Chinese Government.

The land tax is not paid in kind, but in copper cash. It is raised in one instal- ment in the autumn. Before the taxes are collected, the rate of exchange between the coppr cash and the old Mexican dollar is fixed by the District Magistrate, and notified by proclamation to the Chinese. In 1900 and 1901 the Mexican was taken at a value of 80 mace or 800 large cash and the tael at a value of 100 mace or 1,200 large cash.

In 1901 all taxes paid with minute fractions of a candareen or mace were re- jected and counted as either a full mace or a full candareen and a half and quarter as the case might be. This arrangement, simplified the collection of the tax, which, being paid partly in copper cash, partly in taels, and partly in dollars and small silver, leads to much complicated calculation.

18. In 1901, the new rules for collecting the taxes on the frontier village lands, framed by the Commissioner and Governor of Shantung in 1901, were carried out successfully. By these rules, the Chinese and British District Magistrates collect the land taxes due from persons resident without the territory for land owned within the territory. This arrangement was made to prevent British and Chinese collectors of land revenue crossing the boundaries to collect the land taxes. In 1901, the District Magistrate collected $144 and $155, or $299 in all for the Chinese Magistrates of Yung-Cheng and Wen-Ting respectively, and they in turn collected $51 for the British Magistrate.

The Chinese inhabitants of the leased territory escaped the raising of the land tax and salt tax which took place late in 1901 in Shantung to provide funds to pay 'the indemnity for the Boxer disturbances. Practically speaking, the Chinese natives outside the British are are now paying about double the amount of land tax collected by the British Administration. The average tax paid by the Chinese on one mo of land of average fertility outside the territory is now three mace odd. the salt tax, which is not charged in the leased area.

This includes In fact, the salt tax was not charged by the Chinese Government on the castern part of Shantung before, it being supposed to be already lumped together with the land tax.

The addition of three mace, therefore, on every tael collected on account of the alt tax in the Shantung Province is practically on entirely new imposition.

The Chinese inhabitants of the leased aren have reasonable grounds, therefore, For being contented with the lightness of British taxation.

Land Settlement and Survey.

19. Nearly the whole of the land is held by private individuals or families. There is some ancestral land or land set apart for ancestral worship in the name of the deceased ancestor, and a few pieces of temple land or land set apart for the support and upkeep of temples. In the case of the temple lands the trustees pay the land taxes.

There is no confusion as to the real ownership of land in Shantung and in the leased territory, as in many southern provinces. In most cases, the landlord works his own land. If the land is let out, the tenant receives the right of cultivation, but cannot transfer it, and the landlord exercises the rights of ownership freely. There are no clan-lands in the territory. Every inch of ground is cultivated, and evidence exists to show that the great majority of landlords hold title-deeds either registered or unregistered by the Chinese Government as evidence of their claims to the land.

20. Practically no Crown or State land exists, except on the foreshore, on the land round the Chinese forts destroyed by the Japanese and on top of a few inaccessible bills.

Practically speaking the Chinese claim all the foreshore in the neighbour- bend of the fishing villages along the bay and at Mahto. Most of these foreshore claims are supported by unstamped deed of sale dating some 200 years back.

Very few can prove payment of land tax on such land, and it is clear that most of the claims are encroachments made in the past and never reported to the Chinese authorities. According to Chinese law, registration and stamping of these Chinese deeds would make the claims valid. On the other hand, abandonment of cultivation

is held by Chinese law to restore such land to the Crown. As a rule, the British Government decline to admit any claims on the foreshore, except in very special cases. The Chinese survey is no doubt very inaccurate, and has never been properly checked, but it is fairly clear that there is little, if any, land that escapes taxation at present.

It is, therefore, a question whether it is worth while establishing a Land Court under the provisions of the Order in Council, Wei-hai-wei, 1901, for the settlement of claims to land. If an enquiry is held into each title, it will require much time and trouble, and the gain will be problematical in the extreme.

It is calculated that to make a complete cadastral survey of the leased territory could not cost less than $100,000, say £10,000.

When the survey was made, no doubt a good deal of land would be found to which the owners could not prove any title, and the present Chinese assessment of the rent would also undoubtedly be shown to be inaccurate. The resulting gain on the collection of taxes, however, could not be much more than $1,000, because the land is so miserably poor that it cannot afford to pay more than one candareen a mo (about 60 cents an acre) at most.

Accordingly, as there are few grounds for believing that any ground but a very little, and that most miserable, is held without title, and as the expense of survey is certain and the resultant return is likely not to repay the outlay it entails, it would seem best to leave the land exactly in the condition it now is, and to allow the Chinese to deal with it on Chinese lines as in the past.

There is no possibility of the land within the leased area ever rising in value, except in the immediate neighbourhood of Mahto, along the beach generally where the British and foreign community live, and any difficulty arising in this particular part of the territory can be dealt with on its own merits and according to English principles. At any rate, if an enquiry into the validity of the Chinese title deeds be held and a survey made, it would be best to confine the transactions to the land lying in and around Mahto, and along the beach where the British and other foreigners may invest in land for building purposes.

It is certain that any attempt to increase the land tax or impose any other extra burden on the villagers would meet with very strong opposition, and lead to constant breaches of peace in what is now a contented and well-behaved district. The abject poverty of the people, too, is so great that it would be a hard measure to make them pay more than at present.

As regards transfers or sales of land, such land as is situated within the territory but owned by persons without, or in cases of land situated without the British territory but owned by persons living within it, provision has been made by the Frontier Regulations that the deed in question shall be stamped by the British or Chinese official residing where the land is situated.

Very few transfers of land are registered by officials in the eastern part of the Shantung Peninsula, chiefly owing to the land being poor and valueless. however, has been issued to the Chinese in the leased area warning them that the A notice, Government will not recognize any deed of transfer or sale that has not been officially stamped and reported. In spite of this notice, however, very few registrations have been received in 1900 and 1901.

All land bought by Europeans and Chinese, for other than agricultural purposes. since the British occupation, must be registered and surveyed by Government before any title to it can be obtained, and all subsequent dealings with the land must be notified.

Administration of Justice.

21. Prior to the delimitation of the frontier, considerable difficulty was experi- enced in executing the processes of Court on the mainland amongst the inhabitants of the leased area. There is, however, no trouble over this now.

On the island, which is more immediately under the eye of Government and the headquarters of the naval and military forces, no such trouble has been felt, and police work has always been carried out smoothly there.

22. Prior to the introduction of the Wei-hai-wei Order in Council, 1901, the Commissioner acted as the Court of Appeal on the island, and the Assistant Commis- sioner at Mahto performed the duties of a District Magistrate. Practically speaking, the Commissioner dealt with European cases and the Assistant Commissioner with Chinese ones.

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