CO129-328 - Governor Nathan - 1905 [1-6] — Page 496

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consideration from cultivators or families of cultiva-

-tors in return for securing that they should not be

molested by the Chinese Government in their occupation,

often irregular, of lands within certain districts.

3.

Cases of the first class have

been dealt with by the Land Court by putting in the Tax-

-lords as Landlords with power to revise their tenants'

rentals, except in the New Kowloon where the Taxlords are

not resident in the District, and where their interests in

the land have been kept alive by giving them mortgages.

Satisfactory settlements have been arrived at as between

Taxlords and their tenants in these cases.

4.

In cases of the 2nd. class the

!

principle adopted has been to grant a Crown Lease of an

area of unoccupied land equal to that of the land described

in the Taxlord's Deed as having been registered by him,

compensation for his alleged rights over certain cultiva-

-tors, rights which could not be enforced against any

particular lands of those cultivators.

This principle admitted of easy

application to the Western part of the New Territories

in

dealt with by Mr. Clementi as member of the Land Court.

In the Eastern portion, situated on the mainland,where Mr.

Messer worked, the conditions were somewhat more complicat-

-ed

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