CO129-285 - Acting Governor Major Gen Black - 1898 [9-10] — Page 352

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better tenure for their property than a 75 years' lease.

4. Landed property in Hong-Kong has, ever since

the extension of the Crown Leases to 999 years, been the

favourite form of investment with the Chinese, and large

sums of money are annually sent from Canton to be invest-

ed here. The Chinese regard the 999 years' lease as prac- tically freehold, and hence feel a confidence in the se-

curity that they repose in no other investment. It would

surely be most undesirable to disturb that confidence or

to stay that influx of capital into a Colony where, owing to the instability of exchange, this medium is so pain-

fully restricted.

5. Under this new system, rents, which are al-

ready very high and press hardly on a large section of

the community, will inevitably be largely increased, and the pressure will be felt the more severely by land own- ers, coming, as it will, immediately after the heavy out- lays recently entailed on sanitary improvements. What is of even greater importance, however, is the check it will infallibly impose on the outgrowth of the city.

6. That check will extend more or less through the whole fabric of the Colony's prosperity and will speedily make itself felt on the revenue. In attempting thus to provide for the benefit of posterity, shall we not be risking the growth of the legacy it is designed to

bequeath?

Trusting that His Excellency the Officer Ad-

ministering