CO129-304 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [1-4] — Page 188

No. 48.

Rec

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9265

14 MAN OF 184

Government House.

Hong-Kong, 9th

February, 1901.

;

sir,

42834

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt

of your telegram of Brð, January by which you left in my dis-

cration the question of accepting as payment in full of the

Crown Rent of the New Territory, of which two years rent is

now due, a sum equal to one year's rent if paid promptly on

dates to be named in the several districts.

2. The delay in the collection of Crown Rents

has been caused by the complicated system of land tenure among

the Chinese to deal with which the temporary Land Court has

been created. The work of this Court has been retarded by the

necessity of awaiting the cadastral survey, and it was not pos-

sible to attempt the collection of the rents for the first year.

3. The Court being now in a position to determine

ownership the time has arrived for the collection of rent, but

many of the people are very poor and the demand of two years

rent would in the opinion of the officials working in the New

Territory have oreated trouble and possibly resulted in a con-

flict with the Government, which at this stage would be inex-

pedient. I therefore having first consulted my Executive Coun-

The Right Honourable

cil

JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN,M.F.

: