CO129-578-4 Haw Par Brothers Ltd- petition against property assessment 19-4-1939 - 12-7-1939 — Page 8

港香

司公限有弟兄豹虎 號六十二街東成文

八六三六弍話電

號掛碼電

Enclosure No.1

HAW PAR BROTHERS, LTD.

(Incorporated In The Straits Settlements.)

8

TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS

"HAWPAR"

TELEPHONE No. 26368.

HAWPAR”

The Honourable,

The Colonial Secretary,

ilong Kong.

sir.

HONG KONG..

26, Bonham Strand East,

18th. Larch, 1939.

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your communication

of 28th February 1939, relative to the assessment of 177-179, Wanchai

Road, and respectfully submit that:-

1. The powers of the Assessor to vary an assessment during a

period for which a valuation has already been made and paid for, and

to increase such assessment, are not defined, and can be stigmatised

as arbitrary in their character. The Original assessment on the part

of the Government is in the nature of a contract and should not be

capable of variation within a stated period i.e. from 1st.July 1938

to 30th.June 1939.

2. This being so, there can be no standardised system on which

assessment calculations are based, all being left to the caprice of

the officer concerned: nor are the assessor's valuations consonant

with those of local architects.

3. The remedies feferred to in paragraph 4 víz. "Appeal in the

Supreme Court in Summary Jurisdiction" may prove cumbrous and costly.

necessitating the retention of one or more barristers, whose fees

together with these of expert witnesses coupled with Court Fees, may

amount to more than the value of the property in dispute.

1.