CO129-316 - Governor Sir Blake - 1903 [1-4] — Page 322

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

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domestic buildings as were required by Sections 170 to 175

the original Bill attached to Messrs. Chadwick and Simpson's

Report, but I found it unnecessary and impracticable to in-

clude Sections 176 and 177 of that draft in the Ordinance.

The provisions for open spaces around buildings

erected on land purchased from the Crown after the passing of

this Ordinance, for the restriction of the height of such

buildings, and for the widths of new streets, secure ample open

spaces without the additional provisions of Section 176.

Section 177 involved such an enormous

loss of property that it became impracticable on the ground

of the compensation that would have been involved.

Owing to the fact that the City of Victoria is

built on the side of a steep hill these clauses would have

prevented the re-building of many houses, with the result that

the Crown would have had to resume the sites not a few of

which are of great value.

To take Plate III of the Report as an example. If a

house in Queen's Road had been destroyed by fire or other

cause it could only have been rebuilt in such a way as to

leave a space between its back-wall and the front-wall of the

house behind it in Tsui On Lane of not less than one-half of

the height of such latter walls. This would have rendered the

valuable site in Queen's Road so shallow as to be practically

valueless. If on the other hand it had happened to be a house

in Tsul On Lane that had been destroyed, it could not be re-

built at all because after setting back to a distance equal

to one-half the height of the back-wall of the house opposite

it fronting on Queen's Road, and leaving (in accordance with

Section

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