12. The most serious matter of all, however, has been the stand taken by the faimers against the clans their former landlords. The clans and farmers agree that the farmers are absolute owners of the soil in perpetuity, but have been paying money or produce to the clans for generations which the clans claim to be rent payable to them. The case for the farmers is that the land is and always has been theirs absolutely free from rent, and that the amount paid by them to the clans was the Government land tax which they claim to pay direct to the Hongkong Govern- ment without the intervention of the clans. I have had several interviews with the representatives of some of the clans and with several of the head farmers and I have also visited the farms at Mui Wo. The farmers there now state that they will act under my advice and will cause no trouble to the Government, but they wish me to suspend any recommendation until I have visited the farms at Tung Ch'ung and Tái O, and they wish, if it be possible, that they should all be placed on the same equal footing. The system of payment in produce is one of the farmers' troubles because the measures used by the clans are larger than those intended by the deeds and are not the measures in general use in the district.
13. The consideration of these questions with other less important ones has shewn the importance, in the interests of the Government and of the owners of the soil (the farmers), of providing for the redemption of the so-called rent of land tax payable by the owners to the clans, and also, in the meantime, of fixing the average price of produce by law so that payment may be made in money, as the farmers desire, instead of in produce. Provisions for these objects have already been framed for legislative enactment.
14. Full particulars have been obtained from the islands of Ch'eung Chau, (which includes an important market town of 5,000 inhabitants), A Chau, a fish- ing station, and Po Tow Wan, and are now under examination. Owing to the value of the police protection now afforded by their incorporation into the Colony, the owners have voluntarily offered to pay increased Crown Rent, or such increased land tax as I may recommend to be fair.
15. Partial particulars have been obtained from the island of Ping Chau, as well as from the islands of Lantao and Lamma, and the remaining information required is promised as soon as possible.
16. The bed of the sea surrounding Ping Chau, from which coral and shells can be dredged for the lime kilns, has been granted on lease for five years to the different owners of the lime kilns on the island, as they appeared to have the prior claims. The Crown Rents for this now amount to $1,300 per annum, and inves- tigations are being made into the coral beds of other places for the purpose of granting short leases to any persons entitled in priority, or otherwise on public tender, unt I the investigations into this peculiar business are completed.
17. The claims to the fisheries in the bays have been partly investigated, and where there are fixed nets worked from the shore an annual Crown Rent of $5 a net bas been charged and paid.
18. The stone and granite quarries of Liümun have been examined and the titles investigated; most of the title deeds have now been lodged in the Land Office for registration, and a Crown rental of $3,725 per annum is now being obtained from them until the alternative policy of charging a royalty has been determined.
19. The number of petitions from the inhabitants of the New Territory relating to land questions and disputes amounted, at the end of the year, to upwards of 1,000, most of which have been dealt with, wh others are waiting for the institution of the Land Court, or for the completion or surveys.
20. At the present rate of progress it would take about two more years to com plete the registration of the whole of the New Territory and the completion of correct rent rolls and registers; but now that the questions between the farmers and the clans are likely soon to be satisfactorily disposed of, the work will much more rapidly.
progress
21. Forms shewing particulars in English and Chinese of all the cultivated lands from Lai Chi Kok to Kowloon Tong have been completed and posted up in the various villages, and as no objection has been raised the Crown Rent Roll of this district will shortly be completed. The particulars of the cultivated lands from small Kowloon to Liumun are now in preparation and are likely to be com- pleted in a month or two.
17th January, 1900.
BRUCE SHEPHERD, Deputy Land Officer.
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