CO129-377 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [5] — Page 320

311

1

Crown camot derogate from its grant, and that the lease of a lot abutting on a Street implied a warranty that the level of such street should not be altered so as to affect injuriously the lessee's property. Whether such a claim could succeed is

doubtful.

35.

It is submitted, therefore, that no hardship or injustice has been inflicted on the lessees of Kowloon Marine Lots 29,30 and 31 by the express legalisation of the raising of the level of Reclamation Street, on three grounds

(1) The lessees raised no objection to the passing of either the Harbour of Refuge or Highways Ordinance

(2) The lessees are in the same position as every other Crown Lessee in the Colony whose boundary street were altered prior to the passing of the Highways Ordinance, 1910.

(3) The raising of the level of Reclamation Street in fact improves the value of the lots by protecting them from floods and facilitating drainage: the old houses remaining must soon be rebuilt in any event and the additional cost of rebuilding at the higher level will be considerable.

À

36. With regard to the "back Section" claims the Government maintains the position that the lessee of a Marine Lot fronting on a sea road has at the best a qualified right of access to the sea across such road from the front of his lot, in the same way that a true riparian owner has a right of direct access to the water which washes his property. Such a right is from its very nature limited to the Marine or riparian frontage. With regard to access from the back and sides of his lot the lessee is in the same position as the owner of an Inland Lot whose property does not abut on the water.