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the term specified in the Convention of 9th June 1898, and
all persons in occupation of such land (after the date fixed
by notice in the Gazette) were declared to be trespassers
against the Crown unless such occupation was authorized by
grant from the Crown or by other title allowed by the Land
Court.
6.
An extensive survey was then conducted throughout
the whole of the New Territories, and the Land Court set to
work adjudicating on claims.
7.
In 1905, grants of land were made to persons,
clans, families and "tongs" found to be entitled thereto by
the Crown. The grants were made in the form of "Block Crown
Leases". These leases each contained a Schedule which described
the existing user of each Lot such as "padi" (rice fields), "dry
cultivation", "house", "threshing floor", "latrine" or "waste".
Some of the Lots were extremely small, for instance .01 of an
acre. Although the Block Crown Leases were in the form of
Indentures made between the Crown as Lessor and the persons set
out in the Schedule as "Lessees", the Lessees never executed
the Block Crown Lease. Each of the Block Crown Leases contained
a "covenant" that the Lessee would not "convert any ground
hereby expressed to be demised as agricultural or garden ground
into use for building purposes other than for the proper occupa-
tion of the same ground as agricultural or garden ground" without
the previous licence of the Crown. The Crown has, over the past
70 odd years, claimed that the legal effect of this "covenant"
is to freeze the user of each Lot to that described in the
relevant Block Crown Lease.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.