CO129-285 - Acting Governor Major Gen Black - 1898 [9-10] — Page 359

COPY

sir,

ENCLOSURE 4

352

23014

Pert

نكم

Neo C NOV JE)

Hong-Kong, 13th. August, 1898.

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favour of

the 5th. instant stating that it had been decided provisionally

by the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies that

in future no lease in the Colony should he granted for pe-

riods longer than 75 or at the outside 99 years, suitable pro-

vision being made so that the Crown should not at the expira-

tion of the lease confiscate the whole value of the tenant's

improvements, and requesting my opinion as to how it may af-

fect land sales in Victoria and what provision should be made

to guard tenant's interests on the expiration of the leases.

1. I presume that the change proposed is con- nected with the extension of the territory of the Colony, the

added land being, I understand, leased only to Great Britain for

99 years.

2. I can understand that in the new territory

it would be difficult under the circumstances to grant leases

for a longer period than 99 years; but I would deprecate most

strongly the application of this rule to the island of HKong

where the existing leases are made for 999 years. In view of To Hon. R.D.Ormsby,

Director of Public Works.

the