CO129-555-1 Hong Kong Tramways Ltd.- petition 10-7-1935 - 4-10-1935 — Page 17

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trolley service or a motor omnibus service (preferably

the former)" gave it some claim to priority. In point of

fact several applications to start a bus service along

this route had already been refused. It was not till 1927

that the Government, influenced by the successful running of the Hotel Company's buses along Caine Road, modified its policy. The claims of the Hotel Company and the Hong Kong Tramways and of two Chinese companies to operate such

service were then fully considered by Executive Council and

it was decided that the Hotel Company had the best claim

and was most capable of successfully operating the service.

The licence granted was for five years only

and the service was confined to one class of passengers only

at fares not less than the first-class fare of the Tramways.

Paragraph 16 of the petition alleges that no

royalty was required to be paid by the Hotel Company. That is literally correct but a seating tax of $10 for each seat for a passenger in the vehicle was introduced on 1st January, 1930, and a petrol tax was introduced on 1st July,

1930. When the bus services were unified in 1933 under

companies in Hong Kong and Kowloon respectively, each of which pays a royalty, the seating tax on the vehicles

operated by these companies was abolished. The petrol tax

is still in force.

7.

It will be observed that the conditions of

the licence to the Hotel Company are precisely the

conditions to which The Hong Kong Tramways now prays to

revert. It will be noted that the petitioner admits in paragraph 65 of the petition that it has since "partially

recovered from the loss of a large number of first-class passengers after 1928", although the company had on 16th December, 1929, petitioned Sir Cecil Clementi, then

Governor of Hong Kong, for the deletion of Clause 47 of

the