support of the then Chief Manager of the Hong Kong & Shang-
hai Banking Corporation and of the then Manager of Messrs
Jardine, Matheson & Company, Limited. Their support was
withdrawn and Mr Ede arranged with the Government that he
should form a private limited company to enter into the
necessary agreement as to the area selected, to carry out
the building operations, and to enter into subsidiary agree-
ments with the persons ultimately to take up the holdings or
Lots with completed houses thereon. Such persons, who were
to pay the actual cost to the Company, including land prem-
ium charged by the Government, are hereinafter referred to
as "subscribers".
The company was to make no profit.
The Company, the Kowloon Tong & New Territories Develop-
ment Company, Limited, was duly formed. Mr Ede was the prin-
cipal shareholder and Permanent Managing Director. In him
the Government obtained a man of such standing in the Colony
that he could (and did) command the confidence of subscribers
Probably no person in the Colony was better able to command
this confidence and, to his credit be it said, he carried on
alone when the support before referred to was withdrawn.
Unfortunately, Mr Ede suffered from illhealth, and he
died on the 22nd May, 1925, and before the completion of the
scheme.
On the 26th October, 1922, an Agreement between the Crown
and the Company was signed.
Under such agreement the Company undertook to submit a
preliminary lay-out plan of the selected area and, later,
plans of the development and of the houses to be erected.
The Government undertook to form the area, some eighty acres
in extent, to approved general levels, as shown on the
final development plans, as to one third within sightoon
months of the approval by the Director of Public Works of
the preliminary plan, and as to the remainder, within thirty
2.
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