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be saved by having the materials for filling up the area to be reclaimed close at hand, instead of having as before to bring them by a tedious process from Kowloon. It is therefore to be hoped that no unforeseen diffi- culty will arise in the case of Leighton Hill and Mount Caroline, whose re- moval, moreover, will add still more to the land available for building purposes. Morrison Hill and Mount Shadwell are more conveniently situated for the
nse to which Mr Chater proposed to put them, but since the objections of the Naval authorities appear to have been insuperable, the two substitutes proposed are the best available, and, provided that the natural corollary of the present scheme, a tramway rua- ning to the centre of the city, follows, they will be brought sufficiently near serve the purpose of providing homes for the working classes.
to
Extract from the DAILY PRESS,' March 5.
The new Praya Reclamation scheme, as modified in the letter of the Colonial Secretary of the 12th ult., provides, as we have seen, for an addition to the available land of this Colony of a strip of ground 520 feet wide, and stretching from the Naval Yard to the Sugar Refinery at East Point, up to which limit it may be looked on, we think, as the final reclamation scheme. In front of the existing sea-face, from the Arsenal down to Messrs Jardine's premises, there will be firstly an ad- dition to the present Praya, making it up to 75 feet broad; secondly, a space, 120 feet deep, for the construction of Chinese houses; thirdly, a new road, 75 feet wide; fourthly, a strip of land, 225 feet deep, for godowns ; and lastly, a new Eastern Praya, 75 feet deep. In addition to this, there may be a space cleared and levelled inland, on the site of the present Leighton Hill and Mount Caroline, on which may be constructed additional dwellings. The whole of the works, including the removal and re-erection of piers, and the extension, formation, sewering, and chanuelling of the proposed new streets and new Praya wall and roadway, except on such portions of the foreshore as are situated in front of the Govoru- ment properties, will be carried out by the Public Works Department at the cost of the Marine Lot owners; and the Government will not be called on to incur any expense at all, other than such as is involved, on account of the wall and reclamation in front of Govern- ment properties. Mr Chater's services as intermediary between the Govern- ment and the Marine Lot holders are accepted, and what he has to do is to persuade the later to agree to the Government's demands. These are briefly that the holders shall constitute a general fund for defraying the cost of the works and shall bind themselves individually to take up whatever part is allotted to them of the general reclamation, each depositing as # guarantee 25 per cent. of the total value of the General Fund, which 25 per cent. will be forfeited to the Crown in event of a failure to take up the allotment. On the completion of the works, each holder will be asked to take out a Crown Lease for his allot- ment, paying an Annual Crown Rent
of $200 per quarter acre.
The leases
will be for 99 years, with an option of renewal at a Crown Rent fixed by the Governor for the time being for a further term of 99 years. All costs of resumptions of land and compensations to landowners involved in the scheme will be paid by the Marine Lot owners. It is held that a premium of at least twenty-five cents a square foot should be paid to Government by holders for every foot of building land reclaimed and handed over to them. Finally the reclamation principle of sectional
adopted in the case of the Western Praya reclamation will be followed, and the Tot holders will bear the expenses of a preliminary survey and estimate.
From the above it will be seen that the Government strikes a good bargain, for the gain in rateable area and future land sales will be very large indeed, and the expenditure will be nil. But the Marine Lot holders, too, having past history to guide them, and the ever increasing prosperity of the Co- lony to encourage them for the future, have little reason to hesitate. In the report, published this year, and now to hand, of Hongkong in 1899, H.E. the Governor's concluding sentence will Shr meet with general agreement. Henry Blake says: The general con- dition of the Colony is most flourish- ing, and, with the command of cheap labour, it gives promise of development into a great manufacturing centre.' There is a certainty that whatever land can be added to the island in close proximity to the centre of the Colony's activity must have a constantly mount. ing value as time goes on. With the restoration of peace in the Chinese Erupire and the establishment of com- mercial facilities hitherto denied to foreigners, the volume of trade flowing toward Hongkong cannot but increase enormously. As matters stand now, We are not prepared to meet this increase by expansion on the island itself. Mr Chater sets forth the way in which we can prepare ourselves to do so, and we feel confident that the Marine Lot holders will recognise that in supporting the scheme they will consult at the same time the Colony's interests and their own.
Extract from the DAILY PRESS,' April 19.
Last month, when writing of the new Praya Reclamation scheme put for- ward by the Hon. C. P. Chater, and after certain modifications approved by the local Government, we expressed our confidence that the holders of Marine Lote would recognise that in supporting the scheme they are con- sulting at the same time the Colony's interests and their own. On Wednes- day, a representative meeting of lot- holders gave their full support to the scheme, authorised the Government to proceed forthwith with the pre- liminary surveys and plans, and under- took to contribute in proportion to their marine frontages to the expenses So thus incurred by the Government. ready a response must be gratifying to Mr Chater, and it is satisfactory to see that there is no opposition to the pre- sent plan, whereas the scheme of 1887 met with most bitter protests and un- compromising hostility in many quar- tera. The ultimate success of the earlier reclamation has disarmed opposition. It is generally recognised that the increase of space available for building on this island is one of the vital necessities of Hongkong. The lot-bolders, being men of commonsense, see too that they stand to gain largely by consenting to this public improve- ment.. The resolutions carried Wednesday's meeting will now be for- warded to the local Government with out loss of time, and then comes the last step before the actual work can be commenced. Mr Chater anticipates the lapse of about three months before an answer can be obtained from the Secretary of State in London. This answer, it cannot be doubted, will be favourable; and a great addition to the Colony will be on its way toward realisation.
at
As Mr Chater stated in his speech to the lot-holders, a small alteration has been made in the design since it
was set out in his letter of the 15th
November last, and this is in the nature of a act of justice to Messrs Jardine, Matheson & Co. The first proposal was that the new reclamation should terminate, to the eastward, at the East Point property of this firm- a proceeding which would involve the destruction of their harbour frontage on the west. It is now proposed to carry the reclamation along the front of their premises and in front of the Sugar Works and to give them an interest in the scheme to the extent of 160 feet in depth of building land along their northern boundary, One effect of this, it will be noticed, will be to bring Kellott Island 160 feet nearer land. On the scheme as a whole we have already expressed our opinion at some length; and that we correctly anticipated what reception it would meet from the various owners of pro- perty on the Wanchai frontage is shown by the report of the discussion at No comments Wednesday's meeting.
of an adverse character were offered by any present, and the meeting un- animously supported the resolutions proposed, signifying their complete satisfaction with the idea and its details. Seldom, we imagine, has so important a public work met with so little opposition. We look forward now to the final reclamation, which should now be only a matter of time, uumely the reclamation of Causeway Bay with the shifting of the typhoon anchorage to the other end of the Harbour. When such a reclamation has been accomplished, combined with adequato tramway facilities, the makers of Hongkong as a settlement will be able to look back with justifiable satis- faction on their labours. We have now, as it were, reached the beginning of the second act, fourteen years after the beginning of the first.
We may reasonably expect that the progress of the remainder will be more rapid.
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