XN000022-1972-05-10 — Page 15

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Wednesday, May 10, 1972

HON SZETO WAI SPEAKS FOR THE SMALL COMMON MAN

Urges Crown Rents Be Related To Rateable Value

The Hon. Szeto Wai said today that to the average man the present

method of reassessing Crown rents on renewable leases was either a case

of inconsistency of Government policy or that of lack of clarity in the

terms of the original lease.

He was adding his voice to the general concern expressed by other

Unofficial Members who had earlier spoken on the motion to review the present

policy of reassessing Crown rents.

"It remains for me to plead the case of the small common men who

undoubtedly form a greater bulk of the people being called upon to shoulder the

colossal burden and hardship," he said.

He explained that he had in mind the old-age pensioners, the widows,

the working men, etc. who had spent most of their life-long savings in

purchasing a humble small flat in one of the multi-storey, multi-unit

post-war developments, hoping to live out their lives happily and securely.

This group of people scarcely suspected that they would be called

upon to face the demand of a staggering reassessed Crown rent -- a sum in most

cases beyond their "conjecture not to mention their reach, he added.

He explained that prior to the publication of Government's Consolidated

Statement concerning the terms and conditions for renewal of these leases, even

a legal mind could have been misled by the original conditions which, to all

intents and purposes, conveyed that the lease could be renewed at expiry

without payment of premium or fine but at a Crown rent for the second period

to be fairly and impartially fixed by the Director of Public Works as the

fair and reasonable rental value of the ground at the date of renewal.

/Over