CO129-523-1 Reclamation work at North Point- a general plan of port of Hong Kong showing extent... 27-12-1929 - 12-6-1930 — Page 31

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by Mr. Kwik in respect of the alteration of the

design of the sea wall would seem to be in the

neighbourhood of $1,000,000.

11.

Mr. Davidson impliedly asks for the payment

of the whole of this increased expense, but I think

that that is an unreasonable request. In the first

place, Mr. Kwik entered into the 1923 agreement with

his eyes open. Perhaps his eyes were not

sufficiently open to all the risks, but the

Government, who have also been disappointed in their

hopes, can scarcely be asked to bear all the burden

of his optimism and bad judgment. In the second

place, Mr. Kwik has got in the vertical sea wall a

potential asset which may be conceivably become

actually valuable at an earlier date than seems

probable at present. In the third place Mr. Kwik

obtained the "blue" area at a price far below its

market value. This is a most important consideration

and it is completely obscured in Mr. Davidson's letter

and in Mr. Kwik's letters. It is obscured because

of Mr. Kwik's strange and untenable theory that he had

an "inherent right" to a frontage on the new 100 foot

road. The Director of Public Works in his letter

of 10.10.23 estimates the market value of the "blue"

area to have been about $11.50 a foot, or ten times

what Mr. Kwik was asked to pay. If this estimate

was correct Mr. Kwik was virtually given a present of about $500,000, as the area was 58,000 square feet.

On the other hand it must be borne in mind that the

land