Heung Yee Kuk response and rejection of Acting Secretary for the New Territories, Mr. John Chambers, statement relating to Government's land policy in the New Territories.
(On 18th September, 1976, South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Standard)
The Heung Yee Kuk has considered the statement made by the acting Secretary for the New Territories, Mr. John Chambers, on the Government's Land Policy in the New Territories and feels that Mr. Chambers' statement cannot be left unchallenged as it is not only misleading, but also gives a distorted picture of what actually occurs. The Heung Yee Kuk would like to place before the public the following points, which are not comprehensive, but at least will give the public some idea as to how the Government's Land Policy in the New Territories can be unreasonable and unfair.
1. The Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance is a piece of legislation passed by Government giving itself powers for obtaining private land. Mr. Chambers said that "land required for public purposes cannot be resumed without the Governor in Council making an Order", but it must be quite obvious that when land is resumed in the New Territories, it is so done on the recommen- dation of the New Territories Administration to the Governor in Council, so if the policy is unfair. it cannot be made fair by the Governor in Council making an Order.
2. It does not take a land expert or a lawyer to come to the concluusion after reading the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance and other anmillary Ordinance to note that the provisions made therein regarding the resumption of land and the valuation of the land so resumed is very restric-
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tive to the land owner obtaining a fair compensa- tion and very much in favour of Government being able to obtain land at less than the market price or the fair value which the owner should expect. The Government having obtained land cheaply by this method is then able to sell land at exorbitant price to private investors.
3. It must be realized that most land which is resumed in the New Territories are invariably lots of land belonging to individual owners who have no capital or assets by which they can engaged expert to conduct their claims for com- pensation before the Lands Tribunal and are therefore at disadvantage in putting forward a case for their compensation before the Lands Tribunal.
4. The Government taking advantage of the poor farmers' financial situation offers Letter B (future land exchange entitlement) as an alterna- tive to going before the Lands Tribunal. Faced with the prospect of being unable to afford expert assistance, owners are invariably forced to accept Government's alternative offer of Letter B.
5. What is Letter B? It is basically an offer by Government that instead of resuming the Land, Government will grant Crown Land in exchange on a ratio of two square feet of building land for every five square feet of agricultural land and one square foot of building land for every square foot of building land so surrendered. At the time of such offer of Letter B, Government has valued the Land to be surrendered and if land is to be exchanged in future, then a premium will be payable being the market value of the land to
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