TNAG-1725-FCO40-2438-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 136

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 20 January 1988

663

more concerned about their future lease conditions. With the passage of this Bill, I hope all such anxieties will be eliminated, making no small contribution to the future prosperity of Hong Kong.

With these remarks, Sir, I support the motion.

MR. CHEUNG: Sir, the Bill is generally acceptable to the New Territories community for it gives legislative effect to paragraph 2 of Annex III to the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provides that all leases in the New Territories, with the exception of a few, will be extended automatically, after they expire in 1997, for 50 years without additional premium; instead, an annual rent equivalent to 3 per cent of the rateable value of the property will be charged after 1997.

Also, as provided in Annex III to the Joint Declaration, the Bill stipulates that there will be rent concession for certain categories of land held by indigenous villagers. These are old schedule lots, village lots, small houses and similar rural holdings held on 30 June 1984, or small houses granted after that date. Rent for such property shall remain unchanged after 1997.

In scrutinising the Bill, we came to be aware that a considerable number of property in the New Territories held by t'sos and t'ongs should, in the spirit of the Joint Declaration, be eligible for rent concession after 1997, but which did not seem to come under the letters of the Bill. T'sos and t'ongs are ancient Chinese institutions of ancestral land-holding, and the land or the income derived from it is enjoyed by all the members. Many t'sos and t'ongs are composed entirely of indigenous villagers, and many of their property fall under the various categories of land which are eligible for rent concession after 1997.

We have carefully examined the case for t'sos and t'ongs and we are glad that, after lengthy discussions, the Administration agreed that the Bill should be amended. I, therefore, shall move an amendment at the Committee stage stating that rent concession should be applicable to t'sos and t'ongs on condition that all of the members of which are indigenous villagers. However, the same privilege will not be applicable to those t'sos and t'ongs the membership of which does not consist, or has at any time ceased to consist, entirely of indigenous villagers.

The Bill defines an indigenous villager as a person who was in 1898 a resident of an established village in the New Territories or is descended through the male line from such a person. Hence the meaning of 'indigenous villager' rests heavily on the meaning of 'established village', which the Bill defines as a village established under the Block Crown Lease granted by, or on behalf of, the Governor. This creates much concern among the New Territories villagers because they were given to understand that the Joint Declaration only refers to an indigenous villager as a person who was in 1898 a resident of an established village in Hong Kong, or a person descended through the male line from such a