Sea plan page 29A,
quite so
See plans A & B page 28
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appointment of Arbitrators, one to be chosen by the Government and the other by the Land Owner, and in the event of their difference, an Umpire to the chosen by them, all three to be taken from the Special Jury list of the Colony.
17. This would appear to be the more equitable method of arriving at a true value, as mercantile men would be likely to know far better than officials the value of land and house property.
18. Mr. Price knew very little about the value of land, as often erring on one side us the other. In the case above mentioned of the resumption of portion of Inland Lot No. 671 be seeks to justify his valuation by the fact of the Owners on either side having accepted the same for much smaller areas, In the one instance the Chinaman being frightened and coerced into parting with his laud, to the most serious detriment of the remainder of the Lot † at one fourth of its value, aud in the other case the ground being under wholly different conditions, and the Owner being further compensated in other ways.
19. We venture most respectfully to suggest to your Lordship that if Mr. Chater was compensated with 40 cents $ per foot for ground with natural characteristics so disadvantageous, as shewn in the following pages, Mr. Sharp should be compensated with more than that in respect of his so much better featured ground.
20. Also that Mr. Say Gnew Moon had not the same exact record and knowledge of the land market as Mr. Sharp had, and was therefore less able to contend; but we respectfully submit that Mr. Moon's ignorance or timidity* should not prejudice Mr. Sharp in defending
his interests.
21. The price of $1.50 per square foot (it had cost us rather more,) was taken by us on the 13th of August 1885, the day of the resumption, as the then present value of the property-Inland Lot No. 671, had it been carefully disposed of under average conditions.
22. On the 2nd December, 1886, the year after the 9,150 square feet of Inland Lot No. 671 had been resumed, 12,172 square feet of the adjoining Lot No. 670, though under disability from curtailed measurement, as shewn in the plans A & B of Chinese houses, fetched $1.36 per square foot. Our Lot No. 671, (the cutting down being completed level with Middle Street) would have sold for $2. per foot. We were most pressingly in need of the material of which the hill is See lotters of 5th and 11th of composed, for the reclamation of our marine lots opposites and by its Angust, 1885, pages 16, 17, 18. resumption we were compelled to fetch the soil from a distance of several miles in bouts at four times the cost. Since that date no land on the water level between the Slaughter House and the town has been sold at less than $1.50 to 82. per square foot, whilst upon the water side portions of marine Lot No. 126, opposite to Inland Lot No. 671, have been sold at an average of $3.75: of Marine Lot No. 183, a little to the East, at $3.50 and at gradually increasing prices, advancing towards the town, to $14. per square foot.
23. It is customary to accord to retail shop keepers a profit of from 20 to 100 per cent upon their goods which, at home, can be replaced within 24 hours, and abroad, in a month, from the manufacturer.
24. We venture to ask your Lordship whether less consideration should be shown to the sanctity of private property in laud, which has been rightly called the keystone of the social edifice: land which cannot be replaced, and upon which annual Crown Rent at the rate of
† See cloth plan of Inland Lot No. 672 at end,
*The Chinaman's experience in his native yamen tenchcs him to be very circumspect in offering opposition to officials.
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