20
!
10. Also in compliance with naval requirements a timber pier will be provided at the expense of the Colony outside the embankment, opposite the westernmost subway. This pier which will be projected into 19 feet of water, will have the present Admiralty shears erected upon it, and will be reserved for the sole use of H.M. vessels.
11. From the foregoing brief description, and by a glance at the plan which accompanies this Report, it will be seen that so far from Naval interests being in any way prejudicially affected by the proposed embankment scheme, the Naval Yard will be much enlarged and improved, and its capabilities for usefulness greatly enhanced, for not only will the Admiralty acquire a considerable area of building land, but without having the communication with the sea in any way interfered with, or the privacy of the premises disturbed, it will have the present most objectionable black mud foreshore, which is inaccessible to boats during the hours of low tide, converted into a convenient basin with ample water for large lighters, to say nothing of the additional advantage of a deep water pier and granite quays accessible at all times of tide to vessels of as great a draught as 19 feet.
feet.
"
12. Continuing eastward we pass from the Admiralty precints to Marine Lot No. 22 or that portion of the Military Cantonments known as "Commissariat Buildings and in front of which the reclamation will amount to 53,303 square This property (Lot 22) was purchased by the War Office from its former owner a Mr. GRINNELL for Commissariat uses, but as Mr. GRINNELL had no title to any land outside the four boundaries of his leasehold, he could not of course convey, and did not as a matter of fact convey, to the War Office any marine or other rights which he himself did not possess, and it is on this account that the Colonial Government has contended that any reclamations opposite Lot No. 22 would be the property of the Colony to be disposed of by the Colony to the best advantage by way of partial reimbursement for the cost of the embankment. If, however, this reclamation were relinquished to the War Department it would under any circumstance be necessary for the Colonial Government to keep possession, for the purpose of a new public street 30 feet wide to be called Commissariat Street, a strip 15 feet in width, the remaining 15 feet of width to be taken from the adjoin- ing Lot No. 21. This deduction of the 15-foot strip, which contains 7,350 square feet, would reduce the area of the Commissariat reclamation, available for building on from 53,303 to 45,953 square feet.
13. Adjoining Lot 22, come Lots 21 and 20, the property of Mr. EDMUND SHARP. The sea reclamation along Mr. SHARP's marine frontage as in the prece ding case of the Commissariat premises will be the property of the Colonial Government. The area will be 60,640 square feet (including the 15-foot strip to be taken for the street) and if Mr. SHARP will defray the cost of the embankment and of the entire filling in including the 15-foot strip in front of the two lots the Colonial Government will I apprehend see fit to allow him to retain the reclaimed land as an extension to Lots 20 and 21 on the same terms that it
proposes to concede to the Marine Lot owners under Mr. CHATER'S Reclamation Scheme. The deduction of the 15-foot strip, containing 7,257 square feet required for the street, it should be stated will reduce Mr. SHARP's building area from 60,640 to 53,383 square feet.
14. To the east of lots 20 and 21 follow the Wellington Barracks with a proposed sea reclamation of 119,036 square feet, which will be the property of the War Department.
15. From the Wellington Barracks frontage, the embankment will pass along that of the Military Arsenal which will get the benefit of 124,427 square feet of new land, and this land will be specially valuable to the War Office, because as the neighbourhood is already Chinese in character, the arsenal reclamations may be sold by the Military Authorities without any restrictions against the building of Chinese houses, a circumstance that will cause the sites to be eagerly competed for by native capitalists who will pay at least from 3 to 4 dollars per square foot, these being the prices given at recent sales of ground on the opposite side of Arsenal Road. On this reclamation alone therefore the War Office stands to realize at least $435,739; in all probability the proceeds of the sales if the land is judiciously parcelled out, will exceed $500,000.
16. After passing the Arsenal frontage, the embankment will have to be diverted inshore in a rather abrupt, and I fear somewhat unsightly curve as shewn on the plan. This curve is unavoidable, and is necessary for the purpose of effect- ing a junction with the present Eastern Praya at a point opposite the Blue
}
Buildings. The embankment along the reverse curve however is intended to be only temporary and the masonry of the wall will therefore be of a less costly type, the intention being to take down the embankment from the tangent point A, (see plan), and to carry it eastward in a straight line as shewn in blue dots when the time shall arrive for the extension of the reclamations towards Wanchai and Bowrington. With reference to this future extension, I need scarcely add that the rapidly growing requirements of the population will in a few years render a harbour embankment at Wanchai and Bowrington as great a public need to the eastern town as the proposed Central and Western reclamations are at present to the Western town.
17. Of the area bounded by the temporary reverse curve just referred to, 9,000 square feet will be absorbed by the extension of Arsenal Road as shewn on the Plan, and 17,309 square feet by a reclamation which will be available for building purposes. This terminal portion of the work being already outside of the cantonments the cost will of course devolve on the Colonial Government who may or may not reimburse itself by the sale of the triangular shaped lot, formed at the junction of the new embankment with the present Eastern Praya. This trian- gular lot as stated, contains 17,309 square feet, and if sold at $3.50 a square foot will realize $60,581.
18. From the foregoing it will be seen that under the proposed scheme as now amplified the areas to be recovered from the sea (exclusive of the Naval Yard boat-basin and of the proposed Praya roadway and street-extensions) and made available for building purposes will be as follows:------
In front of North Barracks,
In front of Naval Yard,
In front of Commissariat,
.134,215 Square feet.
52,264 45,953
"
37
**
"
In front of Lots 20 and 21,
53,383
11
3
In front of Wellington Barracks,..
..149,036
"
In front of Arsenal,
..124,497
"}
In front of Blue Buildings,
17,309
13
1
Total,
,576,657
27
If to this figure be added the Naval Yard boat-basin and the proposed Arsenal Road and Commissariat street extensions, the total reclamation will be about 684,400 square feet or 15 acres.
19. The price of the 576,657, Square feet of land to be created for build- ing purposes will vary according to the locality and to the restrictions that
may be imposed against native buildings. At present and for the past few years the price of land in the town is and has been steadily rising, and there is no doubt that as the population increases leasehold values will continue to rise.
But though land will doubtless be more valuable in 1893 when these reclamations will be about ready for use than it is now, it will be prudent to provide the widest margin in order to preclude any disappointment later, and to apply the current values of 1888 though inadequate, to the different areas specified in the preceding list, such values being those that have been actually, and within my personal knowledge, paid in the course of the ordinary land transactions of the present year for sites less favourably situated. On this basis the following prices may be realized by the War Office for the four spaces opposite the Cantonments.
i. Reclamation in front of North Barracks,
134,215 square feet @
.$3.00$402,645
ii. Reclamation in front of Commissariat (Colonial property)
iii. Reclamation in front of Wellington Barracks,
45,953 square feet @..
149,036 square feet @
124,497 square feet (@
iv. Reclamation in front of Arsenal,
Total,.......
$2.50-$114,882
..$2.50-$372,590
.$3.50-$435,739
$1,325,856
20. The minimum market value of the 52,264 square feet of Naval Yard reclamation (though of course the ground would never be sold by the Admiralty) at $3 a foot is $156,792. If advertized for sale even at the higher figure, of $200,000 there would no doubt be competing purchasers.
21. The price of Mr. EDMUND SHARP's reclamation in front of lots 20 and 21 comprising 45,953 square feet, at $2.50 a foot, will be $114,882.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.