CO129-628-9 Diocesan School and orphanage 1-4-1951 - 31-5-1951 — Page 5

Sect. file No. 11/3171/49.

SAVINGRAM

To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

From the Governor, Hong Kong.

Date.

16th April 1951.

No.

426

n

I would be grateful for your approval of a grant

by private treaty of about 104,100 square feet of land at the junction of Gascoigne and Jordan Roads, Kowloon, to the Chairman of the Committee of the Diocesan School and Orphanage, incorporated by Ordinance No.3 of 1892, on the following terms

2.

(1) Lease term, 75 years from the 6th July, 1912, (non-

renewable). This term is suggested to accord with the term of the Crown lease of the adjacent K.I.L. 1281 on which the main school buildings stand.

(2) Premium, nil.

(3) Crown rent, approximately $9,560 per annum at the

normal rate for the locality of $4,000 per acre.

(4) Building Coverant, nil.

(5) Restriction on user to the purposes of a school.

(6) Prohibition against sale, mortgage, charge or

subletting without the previous written consent of Government.

(7) Reversion to the Crown without compensation in the

event of any breach of the conditions of the grant.

The land under consideration is outlined red in the attached plan and comprises the remainder of a triangular island site on which the present school stands. It was occupied by the Diocesan Girls' School as a playground under a five year permit valid from 1936 to 1941. After the war the former sports pavilion on the site was converted into a dormitory to house orphans, and semi-permanent classrooms were allowed to be erected on part of the area under the mistaken impression that the land formed part of K.I.L. 1281.

3.

The grant of this land is required not only to regularise the presence of the dormitory and semi-permanent classrooms but also to ensure that the remainder of the area will continue to be available as a playground for the school. No other land in the vicinity is available and it would not be suitable for the girls to have to use public recreation grounds in the locality.

4.

Government has provided an interest free loan of $200,000 towards the cost of adding a new wing to the main school building. This wing encroaches slightly onto the area which I now propose should be granted. The school authorities propose in due course to replace the existing dormitory and semi-permanent classrooms by more substantial structures.

5.

I am satisfied that you may properly approve this grant. Executive Council has been consulted and agrees.

Encl. DCB:ppn.

27 AD 198