Appendix No. 3,
25.-Your Petitioners then applied to the Governor, through the Colonia!! Secretary, that they might be awarded compensation for the losses they were: sustaining by reason of not being able to receive and discharge cargo at low water, owing to the silting and the raising of the bed of the sea there, caused by the Praya reclamation works immediately adjoining your Petitioners' property, and in answer to their applications your Petitioners were informed that their claim to compensation for injuries to their lot would be taken when the reclama- tion works were commenced immediately in front of your Petitioners' lot and that until such works were commenced your Petitioners' claim was premature.
26.---In the year 1896, as the loss to your Petitioners was becoming great they applied to the Government that the Governor would assess to them compensation within the meaning of the Praya Reclamation Ordinance, but your Petitioners' request was refused and, acting under the advice of Counsel, they then commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court of Hongkong against the then Governor Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON, for an Order of Court to compel him to make his award in accordance with the Ordinance, but Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON left the Colony in February 1898, pending the proceedings, and Major General WILSONE BLACK became the Officer Administering the Government.
26
27.-Your Petitioners' suit came on for hearing before the Full Court on the 30th March, 1898, when the Attorney General, Mr. GooDMAN, informed the Court that "Certainly at the present time the Government "had never said it would not take into consideration and fairly and rightly even if only morally bound decide as to any damage which might have "occurred to Mr. HOWARD's premises in consequence of the Reclamation "Works." The Attorney General also further stated that "when the reclamation "work was carried on in front of Mr. HowARD's godown then would be the time "for the investigation of the claim he had to damage by the interposition of the "Reclamation Works between his godowns and the harbour, and that when he "made his claim for that damage the Attorney General would have no objection to his making such further claim as he could substantiate for intermediate damage caused by the alleged silting up of his foreshore during the period "before the Reclamation Works actually reached the front of his premises."
CE
28.--Your Petitioners thereafter when the Reclamation was carried on in front of the Godowns placed all their facts and figures at the disposal of the Government, and forwarded to the Colonial Secretary a statement of your Peti tioners' rents and cost of earning, which statement is annexed hereto marked Appendix No. 3.
This statement was examined on behalf of the Government by the Local Auditor with your Petitioners' books of account and found correct.
29.-Your Petitioners, however, never heard any more about the matter until after the departure of the Attorney General, Mr. GOODMAN, on leave, when Petitioner THOMAS HOWARD was requested to see the present acting At- torney General Mr. POLLOCK.
your
30.-Your Petitioner THOMAS HOWARD then placed himself at the disposal of Mr. POLLOCK and was cross examined by him and by the Director of Public Works, Mr. ORMSBY.
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31.-Mr. POLLOCK, then on the 3rd November 1898, wrote to your Peti- tioner THOMAS HOWARD the letter of that date hereto annexed and marked Appendix No. 4 stating that if he did not materially modify his views he would Appendix No 4. send the papers back to the Acting Governor to make such Award as he in his absolute discretion should think sufficient; but no precise information was vouch- safed to your Petitioners as to where or in what manner your Petitioners views were wrong or to what extent they required to be modified. However your Petitioner THOMAS HOWARD wrote to Mr. POLLOCK in reply the answer a copy of which is hereto annexed marked Appendix No. 5 which gives a short account Appendix No. 5. of your Petitioners case and, for the reasons therein stated, and in which he offered to accept $200,000 as the lowest value of the Lot as a Marine Lot, the value of the Lot as an Inland Lot to be determined in such way as to the Go- vernment should seem best, the Government, having the new Marine Lot in front, being in a position, in your Petitioners' opinion and belief, better able to realise a higher price for your Petitioners' Lot as an Inland Lot than your Petitioners could do by sale of their Lot as an Inland Lot alone without the reclamation.
32.
-Your Petitioners then, without further notice or explanation re- ceived the Award of His Excellency Major General Black hereto annexed marked Appendix No. 6 under which your Petitioners are awarded the sum of Appendix No. 6. $15,000 as compensation.
33.-Inasmuch as this sum does not even represent the intermediate loss of rentals your Petitioners have sustained during the progress of the reclamation works, that sum could not represent compensation for the injuries they have sustained by the conversion of their Marine Lot into an Inland Lot. Your Peti- tioners have therefore not accepted such Award and have returned the cheque for that amount which accompanied the Award.
34.Your Petitioners are therefore compelled to present this Petition to you praying for redress under the circumstances under which they are suffering.
their opposition to the Praya Reclamation Ordinance because it was stated by the 35.-Your Petitioners would remark that they were induced to withdraw
then Governor Sir G. WILLIAM DES VEUX that your Petitioners and others not coming into the scheme would be compensated to the extent of the difference between the value of their Lots as Marine Lots and the value of such Lots as Inland Lots when the reclamation works had changed the Marine Lots into Inland Lots. Your Petitioners, who had full faith until now in the integrity of their Leases from the Crown, have sought for nothing more.
36.-Your Petitioners have now called for a Report from Messrs. LEIGH & ORANGE two of the most experienced Surveyors in this Colony, and such Report, verified by Statutory Declaration is annexed hereto marked Appendix No. 7.
37.--From this Report it will be seen that the value of your Petitioners' Lot, calculated in three different ways, is as follows :--
(1). Value of the ground and buildings the market value of the ground being $5 per square foot, with $ 10 per cent added for compulsory sale:$ 239.805.
Appendix No. 7.
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