328
18
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-
-MISCELLANEOUS.
Suggested Explanation.
5. I hope to be able to show that these claims have their origin in one or the other of two sets of conditions prevalent in the New Territory.
The first of these was the disorder and unrest prevalent for generations past in the districts bordering on the Canton delta. Usually a clan or family had a registered deed for a small area on which they undoubtedly paid Crown Rent, but it is quite certain that they collected large sums under the name of Land-tax of which they have never given any account to the authorities.
The explanation usually offered by the people themselves is that these clans are the representatives of the first settlers in the locality.
6. We know that about 1665 A.D. the coast districts of S. E. Kuang Tung were laid waste for a distance of three leagues inland in order to deprive the Ming partisan "Koxinga" of any base of operations (Williams' Middle Kingdom, Vol. II., 180). After this leader had been conciliated and peace restored on the coast it would no doubt be some time before any large number of persons had settled in the depopulated districts. It is alleged that the Central Government made small grants of money to encourage immigration from other districts. The early settlers would receive as much land as one family could cultivate, on easy terms. One can imagine an immigrant family established in a valley under a deed say for 10 acres of land adopting an attitude of superiority towards later arrivals. No doubt the cultivation was shifting according to the season- swampy and low-lying land being taken up when the year was a dry one to be abandoned in favour of better drained fields when the rains were heavy.
7. In this way the clan would at one time or another have worked the greater part of the valley though the actual amount of land at any one time under cultivation might not exceed the legitimate ten acres. New-comers wishing to settle would be told that the land belonged to the clan who were responsible for the tax. The strangers would have nothing to gain by objecting to pay. Any refusal would mean bad blood and possibly litigation with the result that the Government would get the tax and that the old settlers would have a lasting feud with the new arrivals.
Other immigrants would similarly find it to their interest to keep in with the clan and in time every settler in the valley would be paying them a fixed yearly sum under the name of tax although none of it would ever reach the coffers of the Government.
8. This I take to have been the usual manner in which clan rights over land came to be so universally asserted. The country bordering on the Canton delta has always been turbulent and lawless and the great difficulty of communications in a mountainous region no doubt made the Magistrates willing to condone such frauds on the revenue. No doubt the clan would pay a proportion of their receipts as hush money. When the District Magistrate was honest this would be absorbed by his underlings, when he was not it would form a useful addition to his slender stipend.
9. I estimate that four-fifths of the land tax in the New Territory passed through the hands of an intermediary before reaching the Government. The system I have described was not however the only cause of this. The second cause was undoubtedly the desire of evading the heavy registration fees charged in the District Land Office.
In the first place unless a man had a "heading "a page with his own name or that of his ancestor in the register-it cost him not less than $100 to begin his registration. Even when he had this heading in the register there were fees legitimate and otherwise, to be paid and the trouble and delay of going to the District City.
10. The result was that very few sales of land were registered. The more usual course was for the transaction to be evidenced by a white, i.e., an unregistered deed containing a covenant by the purchaser to pay
Page 335
Page 336
328
18
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-
-MISCELLANEOUS.
Suggested Explanation.
5. I hope to be able to show that these claims have their origin in one or the other of two sets of conditions prevalent in the New Territory.
The first of these was the disorder and unrest prevalent for generations past in the districts bordering on the Canton delta. Usually a clan or family had a registered deed for a small area on which they undoubtedly paid Crown Rent, but it is quite certain that they collected large sums under the name of Land-tax of which they have never given any account to the authorities.
The explanation usually offered by the people themselves is that these clans are the representatives of the first settlers in the locality.
6. We know that about 1665 A.D. the coast districts of S. E. Kuang Tung were laid waste for a distance of three leagues inland in order to deprive the Ming partisan "Koxinga" of any base of operations (Williams' Middle Kingdom, Vol. II., 180). After this leader had been conciliated and peace restored on the coast it would no doubt be some time before any large number of persons had settled in the depopulated districts. It is alleged that the Central Government made small grants of money to encourage immigration from other districts. The early settlers would receive as much land as one family could cultivate, on easy terms. One can imagine an immigrant family established in a valley under a deed say for 10 acres of land adopting an attitude of superiority towards later arrivals. No doubt the cultivation was shifting according to the season- swampy and low-lying land being taken up when the year was a dry one to be abandoned in favour of better drained fields when the rains were heavy.
7. In this way the clan would at one time or another have worked the greater part of the valley though the actual amount of land at any one time under cultivation might not exceed the legitimate ten acres. New- comers wishing to settle would be told that the land belonged to the clan who were responsible for the tax. The strangers would have nothing to gain by objecting to pay. Any refusal would mean bad blood and possibly litigation with the result that the Government would get the tax and that the old settlers would have a lasting feud with the new arrivals.
Other immigrants would similarly find it to their interest to keep in with the clan and in time every settler in the valley would be paying them a fixed yearly sum under the name of tax although none of it would ever reach the coffers of the Government.
8. This I take to have been the usual manner in which clan rights over land came to be so universally asserted. The country bordering on the Canton delta has always been turbulent and lawless and the great difficulty of communications in a mountainous region no doubt made the Magistrates willing to condone such frauds on the revenue. No doubt the clan would pay a proportion of their receipts as hush money. When the District Magistrate was honest this would be absorbed by his underlings, when he was not it would form a useful addition to his slender stipend.
9. I estimate that four-fifths of the land tax in the New Territory passed through the hands of an intermediary before reaching the Govern- ment. The system I have described was not however the only cause of this. The second cause was undoubtedly the desire of evading the heavy registration fees charged in the District Land Office.
In the first place unless a man had a "heading "a page with his own name or that of his ancestor in the register-it cost him not less than $100 to begin his registration. Even when he had this heading in the register there were fees legitimate and otherwise, to be paid and the trouble and delay of going to the District City.
10. The result was that very few sales of land were registered. The more usual course was for the transaction to be evidenced by a white, i.e., an unregistered deed containing a covenant by the purchaser to pay
Page 335Page 336
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