751
trouble must have been irresistible. No doubt they fully recouped themselves in other ways for any loss of fees due to the non-registration of deeds or the non-transfer of tax on a sale of land.
The tax lord families were mostly well to do, numbering most of the educated men in the district and probably thoroughly in touch with the official society of the District City.
They had many methods for coercing tenants who gave trouble by refusing to fall in with their views. It was easy enough for the tax lord to arrange a collusion sale from one member of his family to another; the land described in the body of the deed being that which the newcomer was cultivating; which in the deed-end, tax relating to the common land of the clan would be transferred from one sub-heading of the register to another. The dead once registered the tax lord could point out that the land in dispute was his own ancestral property. The tenant had not the slightest chance of gaining the day being usually a very ordinary person with no status in the District at all: so he appears to have made a virtue of necessity and paid the rent demanded until such time as he might be rich enough to get rid of his oppressor by purchase.
6.
The relation once established, did the tax lord succeed in getting more rent if more land was opened up for cultivation? In many cases he did, notably in the Sai Kung District. On the other hand, the tenant seems to have extended his cultivation with impunity: this was probably because the tax lords who came down from up country found it impossible to check such extensions. In Lau Tao and
751
trouble must have been irresistible. No doubt they fully recouped
themselves in other ways for any loss of fees due to the non-regis-
tration of deeds or the non-transfer of tax on a sale of land.
The
tax lord families were mostly well to do, numbering most of the
educated men in the district and probably thoroughly in touch with
the official society of the District City.
coercing
They had many methods for covering tenants who gave trouble
by refusing to fall in with their views. It was easy enough for
the tax lord to arrange a collusion sale from one member of his
family to another; the land described in the body of the deed being
l
that which the new comer was cultivating; which in the deed-end, tax
A
relating to the common land of the clan would be transferred from
The dead once regis-
one sub-heading of the register to another.
tered the tax lord could point out that the land in dispute was his
own ancestral property. The tenant had not the slightest chance
of gaining the day being usually a very ordinary person with no
status in the District at all: so he appears to have made a virtue
of necessity and paid the rent demanded until such time as he might
be rich enough to get rid of his oppressor by purchase.
6.
The relation once established, did the tax lord succeed
in getting more rent if more land was opened up for cultivation ?
In many cases he did notably in the Sai Kung District.
on the other hand the tenant seems to have extended his cultivation
with impunity: this was probably because the tax lords who came down from up country found it impossible to check such extensions
In Lau Tao
and
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