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Wednesday, May 10, 1972

"These are matters, which, as I have said, will be given further

thought and upon which the advice of Executive Council will be sought,"

he said.

In the light of this debate and the many suggestions made, Government

would now reconsider its policies from two angles first, their initial

impact and second, from the point of view of the eventual level, Sir Hugh said.

Some had held that the values in 1973 would be unrepresentatively

high.

"Myself I admit to confidence in the maintenance of land values

in the Colony, but arguments have been adduced indicating that at the point

of time we are discussing such values could not be regarded as

representative.

Consider Deeply

"These are matters which as I say we will consider very deeply," he said.

The Colonial Secretary asked Honourable Members to bear in mind

that the various methods of reducing renewal rents in favour of which they

had been arguing would result in very substantial reductions in the forecasts

of revenue on which present planning was based.

He explained that it was from the provisions of those forecasts

that the many suggestions for improvements they had made at the time of the

budget debate had to be paid, and on which Hong Kong's social and other

development schemes depended.

/He pointed

.

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