CO129-356 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1909 [4-6] — Page 450

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Enclosure 3.

CORRESPONDENCE UPON THE SUBJECT OF CROWN LEASES.

(No. 290.)

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HONGKONG, 29th December, 1897.

SIR-I have the honour to inform you that an application has been received from Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co., General Managers of the Green Island Cement Company, for the extension of the term of lease for which the Company recently purchased Kowloon Marine Lot No. 40 from 75 years to 999 years, and to recommend that such application be granted subject to an increase of the annual Crown Rent from $61 to $200 per acre.

2. The lot in question, coloured red in the cuclosed tracing, comprises an area of 801,000 square fect, and was sold at publie auction to the General Managers of the Greeu Island Cement Co. for the sun of $16,045 in September last,

3. The company has been established for some years, and the extension of its business will probably bring employment to a thousand workmen and involve a capital investment of about a million of dollars. In accordance with the conditions of sale the company has undertaken to expend a sum of not less than $100,000 on improvements within a period of two years.

4. As a similar concession has already been granted to the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Co. and I consider it most desirable to encourage as far as possible the expansion of local commercial enterprises and industries, I trust that the application herein subunitte l may receive your approval.

The Right Honourable

JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.,

HONGKONG. No. 132.

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fe.,

I have, &c.,

(Signed) WILLIAM ROBINSON,

$e.

DOWNING STREET,

23rd May, 1898.

SI, With reference to the last paragraph of my despatch No. 85 of the 6th ultimo, I have the honour to inform you that the policy of giving leases of Crown land in Hongkong for 999 years, which has prevailed in Victoria for some years, and which the Land Commis- sion of 1886-1887 recommended should be extended to Kowloon, is in my opinion open to grave objection.

2. Leases for 999 years are practically equivalent to a freehold tenure, and the graut of such leases deprives the Government of all control over the land of the Colony, and of all the advantage of any future enhanced valne of the land.

3. Subject therefore to any observations in view of special local considerations which you may have to offer, I consider that future leases should be for periods not exceeding seventy-five, or at the outside ninety-nine years, with suitable provisions to meet the objection raised by the Land Commission of 1886-7, rit., that the Crown should not at the expiration of the lease confiscate the whole value of the tenants' improvements.

4. Pending the final settlement of this question, no further leases for 999 years should be granted, at any rate without previous reference to me in each case.

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