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It was
buildings. Hence, Section 4 of the Buildings Ordinance
(Application to the New Territories) Ordinance gave power
to the Governor-in-Council by regulation to exempt from
application to the New Territories parts of the Buildings
Ordinance. The Regulation made in 1967 exempted inter alia
buildings which have a roofed-over area not exceeding 700
square feet and do not exceed 25 feet in height.
pursuant to this Regulation that the Small House Policy was
devised, preserving in the New Territories a measure of
freedom in the construction of village-type houses despite
the "covenant" in the Block Crown Lease and thus giving a
limited recognition to the right for which the New Territories
inhabitants have long contended.
BLOCK CROWN LEASES
11.
It is to be noted that the terms of the Block Crown
Leases do not have the force of law. No Ordinance was passed
bringing the terms into effect. The Crown simply assumed that
the persons, clans, families and "tongs" named in the Schedules
of the Leases accepted all the covenants, including the covenant
against "conversion" of land "expressed to be demised as
agricultural or garden ground" into use for building purposes.
12.
The Crown would, presumably, argue that if the
"Leases" had not accepted the grant on those terms then, under
Section 17 of the New Territories (Land Court) Ordinance, they
would simply have been trespassers.
13.
But Section 17 gives no authority to the Crown to
impose restrictive terms on the grantees. It simply says that
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