CO129-328 - Governor Nathan - 1905 [1-6] — Page 12

em 2924དྡྷ i*28122-ba-༣ཡརིཡཏཏ''པ'' ཨསཾམཎྞཀཱནཾསཾསྭཱསཱཧཱཏཊྛ

11

The answer to this allegation is, as I excleined to him, that

obs Chinese Authorities did grant licences for dredging and

if it had been found out by the Authorities that they were

redging and taking away the seabed without such licence they.

would have been made to pay a Hont or royalty under licence

or been punished. That the land of the Colony including the

seabed belongs to the Government and cannot be cut or dredgeć

end taken away without grant from the Orown and a proper reat

caid. That the licence fee charged by the Crown Lessees is

equivalent to rent which they theussives have to pay, and

they have a right to charge the same as other Landlords who

subiet their property to others.

17. Man Tin then requested that the shell gatherers should have a right

to cia for the dredging grounds and that the highest bidder should be the

person to show the lease for dredging should be granted.

19.

I explained to bim in reply that in any new case where dredge, ing grounds were applied for I should recc.rend that the ereal

should be put up to public auction on such teras as the

Government considered fair and reasonable and the highest

bidder would bsccre the purchaser and I should also recommend the sare course to be adopted with the arse now airendy

leased as Lactes Nerias Love Nos.1 and 2 as soon as the terms

of the Leases expired.

I recommend that Messrs. Wilkinson & ŷrist be informed in reply to their letter of the 17th. September last, forwarding bike wobilien of the shell gatherers for transmission to the Pight Honourebia the Secretery

of State for the Colonies, that the Fetter has now been carefully investi- gated by the Land Officer in the presence of themselves and some of the

Petitioners and after due consideration it is found that the Leases of Lan- tao Marine Lots Nos.1 & 2 have been duly granted and csanct now be cen-

celied.

That the Fetition appears to bave been presented under a arons impression of the circumstances and thet His Excellency the Governor is