Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1950 — Page 6

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$498,914.00 paid by the New Territories Land Office on claims submitted there brings the grand total of compensation paid under this Ordinance during the year to $3,187,467.08.

Wing Lee & Bridges Streets Resumption.

A considerable area in Wing Lee and Bridges Streets was heavily damaged as a result of bombing during the war. In- cluded in the property damaged was a large retaining wall, and as (a) the possibility of the collapse of this wall constituted a serious danger to houses and land in the vicinity, (b) deter- mination of the ownership of the wall and consequent liability for the maintenance thereof was a matter of extreme difficulty and (c) proposals for development of portions of the area for public purposes would in any event have necessitated resump- tions, the whole area affected was resumed under the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance, 1900. A Compensation Board presided over by the then Chief Justice, Sir Leslie Gibson, was appointed to determine the amount of compensation payable, and this Board, after hearing evidence and arguments for both sides the case for Government being presented by Mr. E. H. Sainsbury, Deputy Registrar General,-awarded on 27th July, 1949, the sum of $141,933.55 as compensation to the various owners concerned.